Cons Of Senior Dating

Cons Of Senior Dating
The use of the Internet and technology has led to the evolution of traditional dating. Earlier, one would meet dates through their friends, co-workers, and acquaintances. Now, with online dating, it has become possible to find dates outside of one’s network. This has made dating interesting as well as exciting for a lot of people. However, this aspect of excitement is mostly limited to a younger population. For older adults and those in their golden years, online dating can be more of a disappointment than excitement.

Read on to know the various disadvantages of senior dating.

A higher percentage of younger users
A majority of the online dating websites and apps cater to a younger audience. In most cases, the demographic trend is toward a younger population between the age group of 20 to 50 years. Although there are a few dating websites and applications (apps) that cater to seniors, it is quite difficult to find matches for those who are 55 years or above. Moreover, the senior dating apps and websites have a very small dating pool, which makes it more difficult to find a match.

Lack of tech savvy-ness
Most seniors are not much tech savvy, especially, those above 55 years are not comfortable working with new technology involving smartphones and computers. It is quite confusing for them to navigate through the maze of online dating websites and apps. This is another reason why there is a low percentage of matches when it comes to senior dating. Moreover, many seniors are not comfortable with the prospect of finding a date online.

Too much effort required
More often than not, online dating requires one to be very active online. One needs to invest their time and efforts. One needs to regularly update their profile, check profiles of other members, go through their matches, and respond to messages. For many seniors, this can be a deterrent as they are generally not proactive when it comes to texting and chatting online, which is essential in online dating.

Risk of misrepresentation
For many, the rules of online dating often align with that of marketing, i.e., how well can one market oneself. A bitter truth of online dating is that the probability of finding matches is proportional to how attractive one portrays oneself to be on their profile. Most senior men look for youthfulness and attractive physical appearances in their potential matches. On the other hand, most senior women tend to send positive responses based on the socioeconomic status, communication skills, intelligence, and occupational success of their matches. To attract more dates and be more appealing, many often tend to misrepresent themselves. They will either upload photos of their younger selves or lie about their work or health. The risk of misrepresentation can also extend to people creating fake profiles. Often scammers tend to target seniors to swindle them out of their hard-earned money and estate.

Unwanted sexual advances
Most seniors are not completely against sexual contact. However, many do not like unsolicited sexual messages that are sent too soon after a meeting or even without any meeting. This leads to a very uncomfortable situation for the receiver. Although in most cases such messages are unwanted, some may even have negative experiences where they feel threatened or harassed. Most online dating sites and apps lack the necessary safety and security measures to report such harassers and take actions against them. Although this risk is faced by everyone who is into online dating irrespective of their age, the risk for seniors is more because of their high vulnerability.