Seniors and Online Dating

When one thinks about online dating, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it strange teenagers looking for dates, the busy young adult who doesn’t have time to meet potential daters, or even the desperate 40 something women looking for her soul mate? If you said yes then you may be surprised to find out that the online dating scene is seeing the rise of a new, grayer group using it. In my article Online DatingCould Have Been Made For Older Adults- They Love It, one can find a rather intriguing look into online dating that is usually overlooked.

It seems that older adults have not only started to use various online dating outlets, they crave them. Many older adults see online dating as a way to gain back independence that they may have lost over the years. Before online dating, most single older adults would have to rely on family or friends in order to find another potential date around their age. But to make matters even harder, around this age many adults seem to lose interest in dating or seeing other people. In short, the average single older adult of the past had a long road ahead of them in order to find a relationship. However, online dating has turned older adult dating upside down.  Now instead of relying on friends and family to be introduced to potential dates, they can simply search for them at their own convenience.  And on top of that, since the potential date is on a “dating” site, it is clear that their intentions are to find someone else to date. Hence, older couples are rapidly starting to see the advantages of online dating given their unique situation and are making remarkable strides because of it.

However, we are also starting to notice new trends among older adults that tend to have everyone shocked. The kisses, hugs, winks, and flirts they are sending online are not the only ones they are doing. Older adults have started the trend of becoming masters of dating, and some messaging every possible match on a site in hopes of obtaining a date. Researchers have also begun to notice that in older adults it takes considerably less time talking online for them to agree to meet someone. Older adults have increasingly become more okay with engaging in sexual activities with an online match almost immediately, but with a majority happening within four weeks. And yes you heard me right, many older adults still care about sex. While it is usually a taboo subject to talk about, the article goes into depth about talking how through online dating older adults are “breaking the stereotype” when it comes to sex. It even quotes one older adult user who admits “sex is extremely important.” So cast all ideas you had about your single grandparents aside.

In conclusion, it has become obvious that older adults may not be the biggest users of online dating, but they as a community have mastered the art of it far better than any other age group. Given their unique situations both physically and mentally, older adults truly have benefited from online dating.