Online dating at 50 plus

I was recently interviewed by Wendy Jaffe, of Tribe magazine about my experiences as an online dater (here’s the article).  I’d always thought it was tough dating as a 40-something (and now 50-something), but what opened my eyes, was reading about the experiences of the younger daters.  They all sound super nice and interesting. I took a look at pics and they are mighty fine looking.  So it isn’t who they are…it is the catalogue nature of online dating that turns you into a quick glance and a yeah or nay.  I know…I do the same thing. 

The article was personally interesting for me because I’ve always felt a bit hampered by the Los Angeles car culture — I’m a very sociable person and prefer environments where you can randomly start conversations — more like in New York, Boston, or Montreal.  So after giving a think (and a great session with my life coach — highly recommend the exercise if you’ve never worked with a life coach before), I’ve changed my own dating strategy and am going to use the same marketing techniques that I encourage jobseekers to use – I decided to develop a multi-pronged strategy for dating.  The strategy is all about finding the things that I like to do, and then find ways to do those things with like-minded people, rather than thinking of dating as an end goal.  Kind of networking for the social scene.  So far, I’ve been enjoying myself so much…heading to events, teas, taking classes.  Not met anyone of any particular dating interest, but certainly pulling in a few business cards for my business rolodex! 

If you are a single, then you should read the article…I’m sure you’ll relate (laugh, cry, cringe…all good).  If you are sitting on the fence thinking the single life is greener, then you might decide to take a second look at who your partner is and rediscover the reasons you fell in love in the first place.  And if you are one of the  lucky happily marrieds, then you’ll be very glad you have a truly significant other that you cherish in your life. 

I’ll let you know how my experiment in reinventing community turns out…