“Forget this silly internet,” someone announced at a party at Bacchus’s place the other night, “You only meet your soulmate at a friend’s house.”
“Or at work,” a goddess chimed in.
“Or at a party,” said Bacchus, pouring out to excess a superb Corton Charlemagne into everyone’s goblet .
“That was a long time ago,” I said. “You’d all better become computer literate now, at least if you want to marry a mortal.” Some gods and goddesses do.
Sometimes it’s fun being so knowledgeable about earth and I thank you all for making me so. Here’s the good news: if you’re over 45 and looking for a soulmate, your best bet right now is to go online. NewScientist Magazine reports that in a Harris interactive online survey of more than 10,000 Americans who married during an 18 month period in 2006 and 2007, 17 percent met at work; 17 per cent through friends; and 19 percent online. (Compare this to a similar poll of 5000 couples who married between September 2004 and August 2005-only 14 percent met online-with 17 percent and 20 percent respectively meeting through friends and work.)
But here’s what struck me: In this new survey, a full 31 percent of married couples who met online were from 45 to 54! Among the younger survey participants, those between 20 and 44, only 18 percent met through the net. So much for relegating the internet to kids. NewScientist reporters suggests that college students and other younger people have more access to other means of finding partners. Boy, do they.
You know that the topic of Dating Again-going back into that world of meeting and greeting after divorce, or after being widowed, is one of my major interests-for the simple reason that it’s what our world of singles are doing. I don’t like to push. But when a woman’s ready, and she’s over 45 and feeling ridiculous about going online and feeling silly about the profiles and the pictures and the demands not only of men but of the dating sites, I like to empower her. To teach her to be truthful and effective in her search, not “pleasing” and embarrassed about anything. (In short, “Here’s Who I Am; Here’s Who I’m Looking For.”) I’ve blogged about this before will again (to see some, check “dating” and “dating again” in the categories on this page).
So remember, shy potential lovers, over 3,000 out of 10,000 new “older” couples found each other online–what wonderful news for those 90 million singles out there who thought not too long ago that they’d rather die than look for love on a computer.
