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Kids & Family

Mature Singles are Looking Online for Love

It's not just for 20-somethings anymore. Online dating can be the right solution for those with a more seasoned outlook on life.

So Valentine’s Day has come and gone, the stores are finally rid of the trinkets and the chocolate is all on clearance. If you are single you may have spent the day with friends or singing along with Adele, but by this time next year you might be enjoying the holiday with a home-cooked meal for two or in a romantic restaurant. Just move on from any Lifetime television induced melancholia and find yourself someone who will make your weekends more fun and your future a little more cozy. And just because your first crush was Frank Sinatra or James Dean doesn’t mean that you can’t look online for love.

More adults over 60 are looking for and finding love online, and that is changing how online dating sites are approaching the mature romance seeker. Sites such as Match.com and eHarmony.com welcome older users and ourtime.com is expressly for singles over age 50.
As many older users of the site Match.com answered when surveyed, singles over 60 are the least likely to report that they find loneliness to be stressful and the most likely to say they are “very happy.” After years of experience in and out of romantic relationships, they are more able to gauge what they are looking for in a relationship. They know their deal breakers and desired qualities especially as compared to younger people who haven’t figured those things out yet. Mature singles aren’t looking to compromise either, with only one in five willing to date someone they weren’t physically attracted to versus 41 percent of younger people.

Is online dating a sure thing? Of course not, as social research has explained it has its positives and negatives. You might start to think that everyone begins to look the same, or that your profile isn’t generating any interest. Experts advise to let a little more of who you are be the focus and less of a laundry list of likes/dislikes or vital statistics. Think of who you are when you are the most fun or the most interesting, and make sure that you look for someone who will appreciate the things you enjoy the most.

More mature singles may actually be better suited to online dating because they tend to be more honest about who they are and what they are looking for.  Researchers at Bowling Green University explain that older singles are saying, “Please don’t waste my time” or “I don’t want to play games.”

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