'Tis the Season to Break Up on Facebook

Your relationship status is a tricky thing. If you put you're "in a relationship" everyone knows when it's over, but if you don't, your friends and family wonder if you and your guy are having problems.

Unfortunately, now people have an even better way to anticipate your dating highs and lows. According to a recent article on NPR.org, a simple seasonal graph says it all. Tech stats site Information is Beautiful was able to track peak break-up times on Facebook by monitoring relationship status changes of its users year-to-year. Based on the information they gathered, it appears two weeks before Christmas, Valentine's Day, and spring break are the prime time to call it quits, while August and September reign supreme as happy dating months.

Why the drama during the Hallmark holidays? Meeting parents, increased pressure to produce an engagement ring, and a wandering eye are just some of the theories floating around the internet right now.

We say why put a label on what you have? Me and my boyfriend have never declared our status online, but the gazillion and one pics of us together all over Facebook says it all. Now if he and I ever decide to call it quits, it's nobody's business but ours. Besides, it's a lot more subtle to untag some pics then be forced to make a declaration in front of all your friends, family, and contacts. Bottomline: Just leave your status blank and if anybody asks, well...sometimes explaining it offline is a lot easier than hashing it out in front of everyone you know.