What is paperclipping and who does it?

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The Origin of Online Paperclips

Face-to-face communication is an essential part of human interaction. Over the millions of years that hominids have walked the Earth or dragged their knuckles, people have conveyed emotions through facial expressions, eye contact, posture, gestures, and tone of voice. Subtle changes in these components can alter the meaning of the idea a person is conveying, regardless of the words used.

For example, imagine that you are sitting down to lunch with a female companion. As you prepare to pay the bill, you ask her if she would like to meet up the following week. Her voice says, “Yes, definitely,” but the tone of those words sounds hesitant and uncertain. Her feet begin to wobble on the side of the lunch box, as if she can’t wait to hop away. Instead of a smile, her face is a cold mask of blank indifference.

Without her saying “No!”, you get a clear message that the girl is not interested in you. That’s why you don’t call her back for a second date.

The advent of the Internet has changed these intrinsic components of nonverbal communication, which are so essential for conveying meaning in interpersonal exchanges.

From the personal we now move to impersonal forms of conversation.

Although the concept of the computer chat room was first launched in 1973, the phenomenon did not gain widespread popularity until the mid-1990s with the advent of AOL (America Online).

This communications revolution coincided with the affordability of personal computers, which allowed millions of computer users to communicate with millions of people they had never met. For the first time, people communicated electronically in real time using only words, without any body language or vocal cues. As a result, important clues about the true intentions behind the messages were missing.

Instead of a face, all chatroom junkies saw was a screen, devoid of emotion. Yes, cutesy emojis soon started appearing in these spaces, meaning there were plenty of smiling, sad, surprised, or scared faces to copy and paste into text, along with multi-colored hearts that conveyed various nuances. But these symbols could be inserted regardless of the user’s true mood, and didn’t necessarily convey authentic emotion in the precise way that one-on-one body language does.

Despite this lack of authenticity, chat room encounters helped propel cyber dating into the stratosphere. Unfortunately, because the recipient of the love letters could not see the face behind the screen in person and could not gauge the sincerity of the communication through body language, the end result of these casual encounters was often disappointing and underwhelming.

Through these dampers, online Paper cutting was born.

Communication has certainly evolved since hominids began walking upright

Eleanor Smith – via Pixabay

The Dangerous Intersection of Emotion and Technology – Paperclipping Explained

Whenever a communications innovation comes along, certain smart, enterprising individuals learn how to use the system for their own unethical advantage. For example, shortly after the telegraph arrived in France, thieves began stealing financial information by “hacking” the cable.

When the telegraph was upgraded to the telephone, “Phreakers” hacked into the lines to get free phone calls, which were then often sold to illegal customers. Apparently, criminals and high-tech go hand in hand, no matter how advanced the technology becomes.

It is no surprise then that the Internet is a target for exploitation by those with impure intentions. Cyber ​​attacks range in severity from breaking into government databases, to stealing money from people’s bank accounts, to simply emotionally abusing the lonely or lustful.

The “Honey Trap” is a technique in which seemingly beautiful women pretend to be looking for relationships. This routine exploits the human sexual drive, with the idea of ​​extorting money from men who are looking for companionship.

A subcategory of the honey trap is the practice known as ‘paperclipping’.

Paperclipping may not be a full-fledged honey trap, given the level of fraud this method entails, but it is at the very least a toxic dating trend, practiced by Internet users seeking emotional empowerment through unsuspecting Internet connections, by posing as friends or potential romantic interests.

Collins English Dictionary describes paperclipping as “a situation where someone you’ve been in a relationship with messages you after a long time, and then disappears again.”

The name “Paperclipping” is derived from similar behavior of Clippy, the former anthropomorphic Microsoft Office paperclip. This annoying “assistant” would often appear on computer screens at random, unpredictable times and then provide little to no real assistance.

Clinical psychologist Carla Marie Manly claims that Paperclipping “...is a new term for an age-old behavior that allows people to increase their self-esteem by playing on superficial, incidental connections and the emotional responses of others.”

Therefore, Paperclipping is essentially a high-tech derivative of the age-old Homo sapien behavior called “stringing people along.” Humans have always sought to store redundant relationships in their memory. back pockets, in case a desired relationship fails and they need someone to fall back on after being dumped by that more valuable partner.

The main difference between today’s paper clipping and the “stringing along” of yesteryear is that paper clipping can be performed over great distances. In fact, it can be made interplanetary, via the existence of the World Wide Web.

Ekamelev via Pixabay

Long distance paperclips

The advent of the internet brought with it the advent of internet dating. Increasingly, online relationships were formed between people who had never met, often living a hemisphere apart.

Is Paperclipping possible between two anonymous people, who might not even recognize each other if they meet in a supermarket? Can Paperclipping really take place between far-flung corners of the world?

If we accept the psychologist’s definition above, then Paperclipping is “…has enabled people to increase their self-esteem by feeding on superficial, incidental connections – and the emotional responses of others,” The experience can be even more intense through physical separation.

Paperclippers may even feel safer behind an impenetrable wall of ocean. Because such extreme space means they never have to come face to face with their emotional cat-and-mouse games, there’s little risk of being shamed for their misdeeds in a public setting.

The Internet has also introduced a new breed of professional Paperclippers, who operate incognito behind computers that could be physically located on any of the seven continents, or it could just be the girl next door.

Using sexy, cute and enchanting dialogues, the Paperclipper enchants the unhappy, lonely heart. Searching in vain for the lights of a possible friend on the murky, churning cyber sea, he leads the unfortunate victim by the string.

The Paperclipper dangles the bait and then pulls it out again, hoping to create the illusion of possible disinterest in the heart of the abandoned person. He counts on his obsession eventually leading to small, sympathetic financial “donations” or even larger windfalls.

Ann H: Pexels

The Paperclipping Honey Trap

An article in Psychology Today by Mark Travers Ph.D. contains sharp points that identify Paperclippers by three defining characteristics. These are fear of intimacy, need for reassurance, and lack of self-awareness. Such personality traits create in the perpetrators a desire to hold their victims on hot coals with paperclips – turning them into pathetic, helpless playthings that require little effort to control.

By this definition alone, paper clipping doesn’t seem like such a serious offense. The process involves hurtful, but perhaps not toxic, communication between two emotionally unstable people. Such casual, noncommittal interaction usually doesn’t cause long-term damage, beyond the initial emotional pain of the paper clipper.

But when Paperclipping is cleverly combined with the Honey Trap mentioned above, more serious abuse and exploitation can certainly occur.

According to Wikipedia“Honey Trapping is a research method that uses romantic or sexual relationships for interpersonal, political (including state espionage), or financial purposes.” To achieve these objectives, The honey catcher tries to lure the victim into a false relationship under treacherous pretenses, in which physical involvement does not always play a role.

Online honey harvesting often involves catfish fishingthe creation of a fictional online persona. The honey trapper may use a very sexy and provocative profile picture, but that picture is probably copied and pasted from somewhere else. The seductive honey trapper may not be beautiful at all, and may not even be feminine.

Once the honey trap has been sprung and the victim has willingly swallowed the bait, the perpetrator can convert the illegal behavior into Paperclipping.

We all remember that cute, flirtatious, but ultimately scheming and manipulative girl in high school who one day batted her eyelashes and whispered a seductive good morning, and the next day gave us the cold shoulder, purposefully toying with our emotions. The uncertainty of her feelings only served to reinforce our obsession. This was undoubtedly the young lady’s intention, as she had a group of misguided admirers at her beck and call.

That kind of Paperclipping could easily have been dismissed as a simple annoyance, a minor emotional hurdle that could be overcome without serious damage to your soul or psyche.

However, the vast spider web of the Internet has turned such tactics into a silken but sticky thread in which the paper clipper’s prey can become completely entangled and his lifeblood turned into a juicy feast.

Without the visual cues of face-to-face body language in real-life interactions, we set ourselves up to be caught in such a fate. Paperclipping should serve as a warning sign that we are treading such a dangerous path, one that could ultimately lead to us being consumed in the belly of a beast.

Beware, my friends, for the Paperclipping creature may seem nice and innocent at first glance, but underneath are deadly teeth.