Latest / 21st Century Dating Decoded!™ / Speed Mingle Dating Slang of the Week: Paperclipping
Transcript
- Brad Peters: Confused by modern dating terms? Master the slang with speed mingle! Imagine it's ⁓ like eleven point four two PM on a quiet Sunday night. ⁓ very specific. Yeah, you know, the weekend is winding down. You've ⁓ you've finally curated a playlist that doesn't make you want to just stare mournfully out a rain streaked window. Right. You're you're in a good headspace. Exactly. You are officially feeling good about moving on. And then ⁓ your phone lights up. ⁓ no. Yeah. It's a notification from an ex. Or or maybe a match who ghosted you like three months ago. Okay, brace yourself. And what is this profound earth-shattering message that breaks a quarter year of silence? What is it? A single fire emoji on your Instagram story. ⁓ gosh. Just one emoji. Welcome to Twenty First Century Dating Decoded. This is our Speed Mingle Dating Slang of the Week Deep Dive, and today we are talking about paper clipping. Welcome in. To the learner listening right now, ⁓ we are so thrilled to have you with us today. We really are. And hey, if you're holding your phone right now, maybe just put it on Do Not Disturbed, because the vibe for today's deep dive is highly energetic, ⁓ unapologetically analytical, and completely candid. Totally candid. We are diving into a stack of sources today that is Honestly, it's staggering. It's a huge stack. It really is. We are pulling relationship psychology insights from Cytology today. Yep. We've got dating dictionaries from Tinder and McClinn, Cultural Commentary from The Modern Digest, ⁓ 96.3 KKLZ, and Speed Mingle magazine. Which is awesome stuff. It is. Plus, we're unpacking some really heavy-hitting clinical data on how these low effort digital behaviors are actively sabotaging everything. From, you know, early dating to literally high stakes divorce negotiations. I mean, it really reaches into every corner of our lives. It does. It really does. So our mission today is massive, but the goal is simple. Right. We are here to decode the messy, exhausting, and often downright absurd world of modern romance. It's just exhausting. It is. And we want to help you protect your emotional energy from these toxic digital habits that seem to, I don't know, multiply like gremlins if you feed them after midnight. That is the perfect way to put it. Because if you zoom out and look at the macro picture, here is the core thesis we have to confront today. Modern dating culture has completely, wholeheartedly embraced raw, unfiltered desires. Yes. But in doing so, it has entirely abandoned structure, boundaries, and intentionality. Right. It's just a free-for-all. A total free-for-all. We have engineered a world of completely frictionless technology. And somehow It has resulted in maximum emotional friction. Aaron Well, and it is the ultimate paradox of our time, right? Like it takes exponentially less effort to reach out to a human being than at any point in history. Right. Just to tap. Exactly. Right. Which means people are putting in less effort than ever. Yeah, that makes sense. We've stripped away the social scripts, ⁓ the courting rituals, the expected phone calls, even community accountability. Aaron ⁓ community accountability is huge. Right. All the things that used to govern how we treat each other and now We're just left with this chaotic free-for-all. A complete free-for-all. Right. Which perfectly bridges us into the ⁓ the dark ages of the current dating landscape. This is a phenomenon our sources are officially calling uncertified dating. I love that term. Uncertified dating. Right. It sounds exactly like what it is. It's unregulated, it's completely unvetted, and quite frankly, it's a massive liability for your mental health. A huge liability. The current dating scene, especially on those unregulated swipe apps, is basically a psychological minefield. Definitely. You are dealing with digital filter fatigue, where, you know, you show up and the person looks like a distant, unrendered cousin of their photos. I've been there so many times. We all have. And because we are swimming in this chaos, our vocabulary has literally had to evolve just to describe the trauma. Yeah. We have all these new words. Let's look at the dating dictionary compiled from our ninety six point three KKL Z and Macklin sources. Let's do it. We aren't just gonna list these. Let's actually trace the life cycle of a modern romance using this absolute alphabet soup of bad behavior. Okay, I like this approach. So say you match with someone. Almost immediately you find yourself trapped in a text relationship. ⁓ gosh. This one is a pandemic hangover that just won't die. It really is. A text relationship is when you text continuously, like Good morning, good night, sharing memes, sending voicemotes. But you never actually hang out. Never. You rarely or literally never cross the threshold into meeting in person. And the mechanism behind it is fascinating when you think about it. It provides the dopamine hit of false intimacy without requiring any of the vulnerability or the real world risk. Right. You get to feel connected while sitting on your couch in sweatpants. Which is very safe. Right, very safe. But let's say you finally force the issue. You say, hey, let's meet up. Okay, brave. You go out, and boom, you are hit with a date or view. Ugh. The date or view. We've all endured this one too. ⁓ yeah. It's a date that feels entirely like a sterile, high pressure job interview. Totally. It's like where do you see yourself in five years? Exactly. What's your five year plan? How's your four one K? What are your actionable deliverables in a domestic partnership? Like, can I just get a coffee? Right. You're sitting there thinking, kind of coffee. not submit a resume for the position of spouse. Exactly. Zero romance, all interrogation. But okay, let's say they pass the interview, you start dating, and then the curtain gets pulled back. Yeah. And you realize you've been a victim of woke fishing. ⁓ this one is particularly insidious. It is. It's a total bait and switch. So woke fishing is when someone actively fabricates progressive views. Or really any Deeply held ethical or political stance. Right. Exactly. Just to lure in matches who highly value those traits. Wow. They weaponize your morality against you just to manufacture compatibility. It is so toxic. It really is. Which usually g goes hand in hand with roaching. ⁓ roaching. Yeah. You think you're exclusive, but when the lights come on, you realize they've been actively hiding the fact that they're seeing multiple other people. And they just scatter. Exactly like roaches. Now I have to jump in here and play the skeptic for a second. Okay, go for it. When we look at this massive list of slang, are we absolutely sure we aren't just over pathologizing? Like are we just an overly sensitive generation inventing labels for every minor slight? Or has this frictionless technology actually fundamentally rewired human behavior? Well, it's the natural question to ask. Right. But the clinical psychology sources point firmly to a fundamental rewiring. Really? Yes. Technology has changed behavior because it annihilated the barrier to entry for bad behavior. Okay, explain that. Think about twenty years ago. To string someone along, you had to dial a landline. ⁓ man, the landline. You had to risk their intimidating roommate answering the phone. Or their dad. Exactly. You had to make a concrete plan and actually show up. It required a baseline investment of social capital. That's very true. Today, a double tap on an Instagram story requires literally zero calories of effort. Zero. But it creates massive turbulent emotional waves for the recipient. Frictionless technology, maximum emotional friction. Which brings us to the micro trend that has emerged from all this linguistic chaos as the absolute undisputed champion of low effort modern dating. The main event. The slang of the week. The dreaded papy clip. Let's dissect the anatomy of a paper clip. Yes. So the term was popularized by illustrator Samantha Rothenberg. And for anyone who remembers the late nineties, it is named after Clippy. ⁓ Clippy. Now, Clippy was that hyperactive, animated Microsoft Office virtual assistant with the giant googly eyes. Right. And what was Clippy's signature move? Popping up out of nowhere. Exactly. You'd be deep into writing a serious essay, totally in the zone, and suddenly he would pop up completely uninvited, tap on the inside of your monitor, and say something profoundly useless like, It looks like you're writing a letter. He offered absolutely zero utility. He didn't fix your margins, he didn't write the letter for you. No. He just interrupted your piece to remind you that he existed. Yep. And that is the perfect one-to-one anatomy of the dating equivalent. It really is. Paper clipping is when a former flame, an X, or just a match that complete and fizzled out pops up in your inbox after weeks or even months of total radio silence. Just out of the blue. Out of the blue. Delivering a shockingly low effort ping. And if we look at the specific markers laid out in the modern digest. The timing of this ping is never accidental. It is uncanny. A paper clip almost never happens when you are actively grieving the loss of the connection. It happens precisely when you are reaching emotional equilibrium. ⁓ I hate that. Right. The Spotify playlists have finally shifted from moody indie folk to upbeat pop. You're having a good day. You're having a quiet, peaceful Sunday night. Maybe you just posted a photo where you look genuinely happy and boom, eleven four two p.m. Maze Stranger. Exactly. Or a cryptic totally out of context TikTok link. Yep. It's a pop up, just like Clippy. Just like Clippy. Okay. And the second core marker of a paper clip is what Speed Mingle magazine calls the dead end loop. ⁓ the loop. Let's talk about the lip So let's say you take the bait. You are polite. You reply, Hey, great to hear from you. Wanna grab coffee this week? Go still. Total ghost down. The exact millisecond you attempt to pivot the interaction from an abstract digital ping into concrete real world plans, they just vanish back into the ether. They evaporate. It is a dead end loop. They do not want to get coffee. Which naturally raises the question, right? If they don't actually want to see you, why on earth do they send the text? Right. Why bother? Well, to answer that, we have to look at the clinical psychology behind the ping. It is rarely, if ever, an attempt to rebuild a relationship. It is driven by ego validation, territorial maintenance, and option preservation. ⁓ wow. Dr. Elena Vance, who is a digital intimacy researcher in our sources, she calls it an asymmetric trade of emotional energy. That makes perfect sense. Right. Think about the sheer math of the interaction here. The sender puts in what, two seconds and three thumb taps to send thinking of it? Literally two seconds. The recipient, however, might spend two solid hours analyzing it. They screenshot it. They send it to the group chat, they dissect the lack of punctuation, and they wonder if this means the sender has finally grown up and changed. It's the cheapest possible real estate you can buy in someone else's mind. It really is. Dr. Elena Rostova frames it perfectly. She says it's a low risk way of asking, do you still care about me without having to actually care about you? ⁓ that's brutal. It is. And Mark Travels in Psychology Today breaks this down into three distinct clinical drivers. Let's hear them. The first is a fear of intimacy. Right. And let's actually explain how that works, because we throw around terms like avoidant attachment a lot on these deep dives. We do. But biologically, someone with an anxious avoidant attachment style fundamentally craves connection. They do. They feel lonely, so they reach out. That's the ping. Right. But the moment you reply warmly and show real availability, their nervous system perceives that sudden closeness as a threat. Exactly. Real emotional exposure becomes a possibility. They absolutely panic and they retreat back into silence. So they want the warmth of the fire, but their nervous system won't let them get close enough to actually sit by the hearth. That's a beautiful analogy. So they just throw a pebble at the window instead. Right. Now the second driver Travers identifies is a need for validation. Okay. Let's say they just had a terrible date or someone else rejected them and their self esteem takes a dip. They're feeling low. Firing off a text to you and getting a reply is a guaranteed ego boost. It's a rapid-fire way to confirm they still hold emotional sway over someone. Just using you for a quick hit of confidence. Exactly. And the third reason is just a profound lack of self-awareness. Just cluelessness. Pretty much. They are fundamentally indecisive and emotionally unavailable even to themselves. Yeah. They don't have a grand Machiavellian plan to ruin your night. They are just operating on pure impulse. Now wait, hold on. I can hear people listening right now saying, ⁓ are we overthinking this? I owe it sounds intense. What if it's completely innocent? What if an ex literally just drove past that amazing taco spot you two used to go to, felt a genuine pang of nostalgia, and just wanted to share a nice memory? That is the trap. It's a trap. Yes. And to escape it, we have to use the action versus message matrix. Okay, break that down. If it is a healthy, genuine reconnection attempt, the action will match the message. Okay. A healthy reach out involves effort and accountability. It sounds like, hey, I was just driving past the taco place. I know it's been three months since we spoke, but I'd love to call you this week and catch up if you're open to it. See, that is clear. Yes. If it's just a nostalgic drive by taco text and they vaporize the second you ask how they are doing, well, that's a paperclip. Wow. Real connection requires consistency, not just treating someone's inbox like an emotional drive-thru. An emotional drive-thru. But here is where this deep dive takes a darker turn. Darker. Yeah. Yeah. This occasional unpredictable validation isn't just an annoyance. It actively alters our brain chemistry. Wait, absolutely. We have to look at the neuroscience of toxic ties. And to do that, we look at the concept of intermittent reinforcement. Yes. This is the psychological glue that makes toxic relationships feel biologically addictive. Exactly. Let's look at B.F. Skinner and his foundational behavioral psychology experiments. Okay. So Skinner put animals in a box with a lever. In the first scenario, every single time the animal pressed the lever, it got a food pellet. Nice and easy. Right. It was a consistent 100% predictable reward. The animals learned the behavior, but they were relaxed about it. They pressed it when they were hungry, they ate, and they chilled out. Sounds peaceful. But then Skinner changed the rules of the game. He started rewarding the animals at random, unpredictable intervals. ⁓ this is where it gets crazy. Sometimes they pressed the lever and got a treat. Sometimes they pressed it forty times and got absolutely nothing. Sometimes they hit the jackpot and got three treats in a row. And what happened? The animals lost their minds. They pressed the lever obsessively, frantically, long after the food was gone. The unpredictability became the hook. Because unpredictability triggers massive chaotic dopamine hits in the brain. Exactly. Your brain becomes hyper focused on solving the puzzle, on earning that next scarce moment of connection. Yeah. When a paper clipper gives you a sudden microscopic burst of warmth after months of cold silence, your starved brain registers it as a massive, disproportionate reward. You're pulling the slot machine lever. That is the exact perfect analogy. A healthy, consistent partner is like a steady paycheck. Yeah. It's secure, it is reliable, but it doesn't give you a visceral rush. A toxic paper clipper is a slot machine in Vegas. Man. You are biologically hooked on the gamble. People constantly confuse that biological anxiety and that dopamine spike with passion or love, but it's an illusion. It's just a chemical reaction. It is just intermittent reinforcement keeping you trapped in a skinner box. That is so eye-opening. And because this tactic is so psychologically potent, it is incredibly easy to confuse it with other manipulative dating trends. It really is. So let's walk through the slang spectrum to help everyone spot the subtle differences out in the wild. Yes, we need to clearly separate paper clipping from the rest of the pack. So let's start with breadcrumbing. Okay, so if paper clipping is a pop-up, breadcrumbing is a trail. A trail. Bread crumbing is a continuous present tense. Ongoing drip feed of attention. Right. They plug a post on Monday, they send a flirty text on Wednesday, they vaguely promise to hang out sometime soon on Friday. Always stringing you along. Exactly. They are actively luring you along to keep you on the hook. Paper clipping, on the other hand, is sporadic and isolated. Yeah. It's a ping from the past with absolutely zero intention of continuity. Spot on. Now, what about ghosting and zombieing? Well, ghosting is total, absolute silence. You never hear from them again. Zombieing is when that ghost returns from the dead, acting like nothing happened. But and this is the key distinction, they actually want something concrete. Right. They have an agenda. Yes. They want to restart the relationship, or more likely they want a late night hookup. Zombies want to eat your brains. Paper clippers just want to stare at you through the window to make sure you're still home. That is creepy but accurate. They return just to hold their place like a bookmark. They want the option without the obligation. Exactly. And finally, let's distinguish it from orbiting. Okay. Orbiting is passive surveillance. Like watching stories. Exactly. They watch every single one of your Instagram stories. They might even like a post occasionally, but they never, ever speak to you directly. Why do they do that? Because it offers the comfort of voyeurism without the vulnerability of rejection. Wow. Paperclipping is active. It requires them to actually type out a message and cross the threshold into your inbox, even if it's incredibly low effort. Okay, so we've successfully diagnosed the disease. We know what uncertified dating looks like. We understand the anatomy and the neuroscience of the paperclip. We do. The million dollar question is how do we evaluate our own dating lives to ensure we aren't falling prey to these traps? Well, this brings us to a conceptual framework from our sources that I absolutely love. What's that? The relational portfolio. Relational portfolio. Okay. We need to fundamentally stop viewing modern romance as this passive weather event that just happens to us while we endlessly swipe on our phones. Like it's just raining dates. Right. We have to move from passive victimhood to active intentionality. You should curate your dating life like a high stakes investment portfolio. I love this framing because it forces accountability. It does. You are the portfolio manager of your own emotional energy. You have limited capital, like your time, your vulnerability, your attention. It's highly limited. And you need to rigorously decide where to invest it based on risk assessment and the potential for genuine connection. Exactly. And just like in finance, there are real-world pitfalls where people Completely sabotage their own portfolios. ⁓ yeah, we see this constantly. People engage in flea bagging, which is the clinical slang for repeatedly compulsively dating people who are completely wrong for you. You're actively self-sabotaging your own attachment patterns. Or on a more practical surface level, people complain they can't attract high-quality investments, but their prospectus is terrible. Right. They are using outdated, poorly lit headshots with expired. Heavily pixelated digital filters on their dating profiles. Yes. You cannot expect a high yield emotional return if you are bringing zero intentionality and authenticity to your own presentation. It's so true. And we have to stress that this portfolio concept isn't just about, you know, casual Friday night dates. Right. The data we have from the Hobson Law Firm highlights how these low effort toxic behaviors severely complicate extremely high stakes life events. Like divorce. Exactly. If you have a manipulative ex who is paper clipping or breadcrumbing you during contentious divorce negotiations, or while you are trying to establish a healthy co-parenting routine, it causes massive emotional disruption. I can't even imagine. It derails the healing process and creates very real legal and emotional chaos for families. Now let me challenge this framing for a second. Okay, do it. If we start treating our dating lines like a financial portfolio. Yeah. You know, if we're constantly evaluating assets and risk management, aren't we in danger of becoming just as calculated and cold as the people paperclipping us? That is a vital distinction to make. And the answer is absolutely not. Okay. There is a massive psychological difference between being calculating and being intentional. How so? Being calculating is what the paperclipper does. Extracting value from other people to inflate their own ego with zero regard for the collateral damage. Right. Using people. Yes. Being intentional is about having enough self-respect to protect your assets. It's looking at a situation and saying, My time and my heart have immense value, and I require mutual consistent effort to grant access to them. Wow. That is not cold. That is the ultimate form of self-care. That is incredibly well said. So you've audited your portfolio, you've looked at your inbox, and you've identified a paper clipper who is dragging down your emotional ROI. Right. How do we tactically remove them? Well, the clinical experts in our sources outline three main tactical defenses. Okay, that's your name. Strategy number one, and universally the most highly recommended by therapists is the hard cut, total blackout. The absolute ignore. Yes. The ultimate most devastating antidote to someone seeking a cheap ego check is a complete void-like lack of response. Just nothing. Mute the conversation, block the number, or archive the thread. Remember, paper clipping relies entirely on a feedback loop. Right. They want the dopamine hit if you refly. Exactly. By denying them a response, you completely starve the loop and protect your peace. But some people can't do that. Some people hate leaving things unsaid. That's true. So strategy number two is the direct call out or boundary setting. Yeah. This is for the people who need explicit closure. Right. If the silence is eating you alive, you send one firm, incredibly polite, emotionally detached message. Like what? Like, hey, I'm looking for consistent connection in person these days. What are your intentions here? So it's good. Or even simpler, I'm focusing on moving forward right now, so I'd prefer we don't keep checking in. It instantly removes all ambiguity. It does. A genuine person will respect that boundary and apologize, while a paper clipper will flee in terror from the direct accountability. They hate accountability. They really do. And strategy number three is for situations where you can't just block them, it's the mirror test. Often known in psychology as the gray rock method. Yes, this is crucial if you run in the same tight-knit social circle. Or like if you work together. Exactly. And you have to reply to maintain a facade of professionalism. You simply match their incredibly low energy investment. So if they send hey, you reply with what, a single sterile thumbs up emoji? Bingo. You fulfill the most basic requirements of societal politeness, but you offer absolutely zero emotional warmth. You become as boring and unreactive as a gray rock. You give them absolutely nothing to feed on. Now outlining these boundaries is easy in a podcast studio, you know. But in the moment when it's midnight, your heart is pounding, and that slot machine dopamine is spiking, how do we process the emotion so we don't react impulsively and said a massive multi-paragraph text? ⁓ the midnight paragraph text. We've all been tempted. This is where the WTMF AI source provided an incredibly practical tool. What's that? It's called the before and after technique. Okay. Before you react to a toxic text, before you try to craft the perfect zinger to get closure, you open a physical journal or a secure journaling app and you write nonstop for ten minutes. The stream of consciousness. Yes. You dump all the raw emotion, the anger, the pathetic nostalgia, the confusion out onto the page. Your journal becomes your relationship prep room. I love that concept. The relationship prep room. It's where you put on your armor. Exactly. Because by processing the chaos privately first, you bypass the panic nervous system and find the root need underneath the emotion. So you figure out what you're actually feeling. Usually you realize you don't actually miss them at all. You just miss feeling chosen. Wow, yeah. Once you have that profound clarity, you can execute the hard cut or the direct call out without being hijacked by your own biology. That is so powerful. So we have successfully diagnosed the disease of uncertified dating. We understand the psychology, we've decoded the neuroscience, and we have our tactical defenses in place. We are geared up. But we can journal and set boundaries all day long. You know, if the environment we are dating in is inherently toxic, we're just treading water. That's the painful truth. Analyzing the chaos isn't enough. We need a structural cure for this widespread dating burnout. And that brings us to the ultimate remedy. It is time to officially introduce the Speed Mingle ecosystem. Let's do it. This is the structural cure to the chaos we've been deconstructing all hour. If modern dating is a terrifying, uncertified Wild West, Speed Mingle is the gold standard certification. It is applied intentionality. Yes. The Speed Mingle platform takes all the psychological safety and intentionality we just talked about and builds it directly into a seamless, unavoidable system. It completely eliminates the ability to paperclip or breadcrumb because the architecture of the platform requires structure and commitment. Let's detail the six intentional modalities, starting with number one, which is speed mingle anywhere. So speed mingle anywhere is brilliant because it brings the authenticity of real face to face interaction right into the safety and comfort of your own home. So you don't have to leave the couch. Right. But it relies on highly structured, strict. Timed video interactions. You aren't endlessly texting a static avatar for three weeks. Right, no text relationships. Exactly. You are looking a real human being in the eye, reading their microexpressions, hearing their laugh, and actually connecting. It's incredibly efficient. It instantly murders the text relationship. You know within five minutes if there's a spark. Totally. Modality number two is for the extroverts. Speed mingle social. Now for those who prefer real-world kinetic energy. Social offers relaxed, non-hosted weekly gatherings at established premium local venues. ⁓ that sounds nice. It is intentional, but the pressure is remarkably low. Why? Because you know that every single person in that room has opted in. Everyone wants to be there. They are actually looking to meet people, which completely removes the terrifying barrier of walking up and saying hello. Modality number three might be my favorite. Speed mingle happenings. ⁓ the happenings are great. These are curated activity-based events. We're talking bowling, interactive cooking classes, trivia nights. Fun stuff. It's designed specifically to completely bypass that agonizing, stilted data view small talk we mentioned. Thank goodness. Because you're engaged in an activity together, the conversation flows naturally around a shared objective. It lets your true personality shine through instead of your interview persona. Exactly. Modality number four is fantastic. Because it recognizes that a healthy relational portfolio isn't just about romance. It's speed mingle neighbors. Right. Neighbors, these are high-energy social events focused entirely on turning local strangers into friends. No romance expected. There is explicitly no romance required or expected. It's about building your local tribe, which is essential for emotional grounding. Modality number five takes that exact same structural efficiency and applies it to your career. Speedbingle B2B. Yes. This is a high octane, round robin, professional networking format. So good. You can maximize your career circle and make highly meaningful business connections without wasting three hours awkwardly holding a warm glass of white wine at a stale corporate mixer. I hate those corporate mixers. We all do. And finally, the highly anticipated sixth modality, which is officially launching in the fall of 2026. Drum roll plays. Speedbingle one to one. Yes. This is the absolute pinnacle of intentionality. These are pre-vetted, personalized, low pressure meetings based on deep real compatibility metrics, not just geographic proximity and a pulse. It is the absolute definitive antithesis of the random unregulated swipe. It really is. It is a complete holistic ecosystem designed from the ground up to protect your most valuable asset, which is your time. Your time. And foster actual certified human connection. Aaron Well, with the solution officially on the table. It is time to wrap up this deep dive and give you, the listener, your marching orders. Listeners, consider this your official call to action. It is time to stop staring at your phones in the dark, waiting for an expired ping from a ghost of relationships past. Just put the phone down. Take the initiative, audit your portfolio, close those dead end tabs, and attend a local speed mingle event to mix, match, and mingle in real life. And if there isn't a speed mingle event currently available in your specific area, you're a unique opportunity here. Contact Speedmingle directly. You can step up to become a local host or a venue partner and physically bring this structural cure to your own community. You can catch this deep dive and all our expensive content decoding modern romance across multiple platforms. Everywhere. For audio, we are streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, iHeartRadio, and Deezer. And if you prefer to watch us, you can find Speedmingle TV on YouTube, Roku, Amazon Fire TV. Just search Speedmingle Network on your device or use the beautifully designed mobile web app at speedmingle.movie. And of course, every single thing we do lives at our official hub, twenty first century datingdecoded.com. Check it out. Before we go, we genuinely need your support to keep decoding this landscape and fighting the good fight against uncertified dating. We really do. Please smash the subscribe button, drop a five star review, and most importantly, share this link with that friend who is currently hyperanalyzing a fire emoji from their ex. ⁓ we all have that friend. Or that friend who is still inexplicably using an expired dog ear filter on a dark headshot. Help them out. Seriously, share it in the group chat. Save a life. I want to leave everyone with a final slightly provocative thought to mull over as you go about your week. Okay. Let's hear it. We've talked extensively today about how frictionless technology has enabled all these toxic behaviors. Right. But let's extrapolate that out for a second. If technology continues to make human communication completely frictionless, instant, and disposable, are we at risk of losing our collective emotional permanence? ⁓ wow. Are we slowly conditioning our brains to view complex human beings with feelings, histories, and hearts as nothing more than open browser tabs? Just tabs. Tabs that we can just refresh whenever we feel a momentary pang of boredom. That is a chilling thought to end on. A human being is a full complex story, not just a digital tab to hold your page when you're lonely. Close the tab, clear your cash. Until our subsequent episode, remain deliberate, maintain protection, and consistently date with a defined purpose. Welcome to Speed Mingle, where making real connections happens in stream, swipe, socialize, your ultimate connection network. Jump in now. Thanks for tuning in to the Speed Mingle Network.