“A lot of older people we interviewed said they could never be sure someone they were in a social group with was actually interested in a relationship,” says Malta. “Just because someone was single – widowed or divorced or whatever – didn’t mean they were actually flirting with you. They might just be being nice. At least online, you know everybody is there for the same reason. You don’t make a fool of yourself, they said. And if things weren’t right, you could let it go and just try again.”
And any shame once attached to a match made in cyberspace seems to have dissipated (that said, few want their real names used for this story).
“Over the last three years or so, we’ve experienced a 10 to 15 per cent growth in the over-50s market,” says Dave Heysen, chief executive of RSVP. And a chunk of those are over 70. “We generally see about 15,000 new active members join in Australia every month. Of that, you’re probably looking at about 40 per cent or more who would be over 50.”
Dating sites such as Silver Singles and Elite Singles, eharmony, Over60sdatingonline and RSVP are targeting the romantic needs of the over 50s
Annie McCarthy and Warren Marsh met online. McCarthy spent most of her life working in the fashion and music industries, and it Företagets webbplats shows. When we meet in her enviably neat and stylish warehouse apartment in Surry Hills, she’s dressed in slim black pants, very cool boots, a black sweater and a spotted black scarf tied in some mysteriously clever way. An Elsa Peretti silver cuff gleams voguishly at her wrist. She’s funny and engaging and so perfectly co-ordinated with her monochrome furnishings, she could have stepped out of a brochure for ageing gracefully at home without resorting to Crocs.