A survey released this week sponsored by the sociology department shows that meaningless and/or awkward “How was break?” conversations are up 20 percent this term.Sources say the survey was completed last week, but the release of the results had been stalled by a local bureaucrat.The figures fit into a trend of increased usage of “ice-breakers” (a highly technical term meaning conversational lead-ins) over the past five years.”It’s a social epidemic,” said the director of the survey, professor Tara Klein.”The results show,” Klein continued, “the student community is acculturating the alienation of vacation by reestablishing kinship ties through simple and innocuous linguistic signifiers.”The fallout from this seemingly harmless question has led to unwarranted and clumsy hugging, botched complicated macho handshakes, stammering, uncomfortablelingering eye contact and the mutual transfer of imminently forgettable information.