Date.com: Find Love Online

Monday 23 April 2012

Single adults over 50 turning to online dating



UNDATED (CNN) -- Can people in their 50's find real love on line? The thought is daunting for some baby boomers.
Suzanne Forman is on a blind date, with Todd Grodnick, who she's only met on the phone. Like many unmarried baby boomers, Forman considers companionship more important in her 50s. Forman says, "I mean I can't believe I'm 55. I feel like I'm still 20 or 30 something. I still have that energy. I still have you know that spark that uhm but I do have a lot of candles on my cake."
Introductions through friends and relatives haven't worked. Forman says, "They kept trying to set me up with friends of theirs and each one was just worst than the next. I was a vegetarian and one of the guys they set me up with took me to a Morroccan restaurant and ate raw meat in front of me."
So Forman, and a growing number of singles over 50, are going online find potential matches. Staci Dansey is a 61-year-old real estate agent. She says, "I can't imagine spending the rest of my life alone."
After her marriage ended, Dancy's daughter-in-law made a suggestion. Dansey says, "She said, oh you've got to get on one of those on-line dating sites. And I said I don't think so."
Then her daughter told her about OurTime.com, a dating site for those over 50. Dansey says, "There has been a perfect storm of with a growing number of baby boomers who are single, with a growing number of baby boomers using the internet, and discovering that it's a way to be connected."
Dr. Gail SAltz with OurTime.com says, "It's just a numbers game. The more people I meet the greater the odds that I will meet a guy who wants to have a loving warm committed serious monogamous relationship."
A 2010 eHarmony survey found the Internet is now the most popular way for people over 50 to meet and marry. Gia Gonzaga with eHarmony says, "I've always thought the idea that the older generation is afraid of technology is overblown, because they now seem to adopt it, and adopt it in numbers just as much as everybody else does."
Widow Vange LeClarc and divorce Rob Foss met online in 2008. Foss says, "I had been married so long I'd kind of forgotten the process, so I was like a duck out of water."
Both liked the idea of viewing and reading about potential dates before agreeing to meet. LeClare says, "I think it's less intimidating than going out there and meeting someone at a, ya know, bar."
Dating after 50 is different. Foss says, "We each have assets now. When I was in my 20s, I owned a stereo and a used car."
But the results can be the same. Foss and LeClarc are planning a Hawaiian wedding next year.

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