by David Perkins

Created on: June 27, 2008

First of all, I should say that most people I know, who are over the age of fifty, bristle at being called 'seniors.' They don't consider themselves 'old,' they resent the mail they receive from AARP, and they won't even accept the discounts available at movie theatres, restaurants, and other commercial establishments, at least until they cross over the sixty mark. Then, they seem to lighten up a little.

I don't think it's a matter of vanity, at least not entirely. It seems to be more the fact that they don't feel like seniors in the traditional sense of the term. These people are not our grandparents grandparents, if you'll excuse a twist on some stolen imagery. These are not the pie-baking, chair-rocking, knitting needle-clicking grannies of yore. Okay, some probably are, but remember, many of them are the kids who went off to the Peace Corps, fought in Vietnam, marched on Washington, and danced naked at Woodstock. Sorry if that last one put a picture of your grandma in your head that you'll never get out.

The point is, most of these 'seniors' are still healthy, vibrant, vigorous, financially stable and, dare we say it, sexually active human beings. They are online in record numbers, just like the rest of us, and they're at online dating venues looking for the same things the rest of us are looking for; friendship, romance, companionship, love, and sex. And the good news is, there are a boatload of online services that are designed to cater specifically to the 'mature' dater.

Amazingly, you only have to be over forty to find yourself included in this group, when it comes to online dating sites, but the fact is, there really are no rules. There's nothing to prevent a man or woman of forty-five, or even seventy-five, from signing up at any dating or personals site on the web, and thousands do every day. The only point of the mature-specific dating sites is to make the search easier for the searchers, just like any other niche site. If you're looking for someone in a specific ethnic, social, religious, or age group, it makes sense to go to where they congregate. If you're sixty and looking for someone else who's sixty, and you don't want to sift through all the thirty-year-olds, then give a mature dating site a spin, even if you resent the terminology. Although, sometimes the sifting can be a good time in itself.

Now, some may think that because Grandpa doesn't use his mobile phone for texting and downloading tunes, that he doesn't appreciate, or understand, the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>