Love Twenty-First Century Style

The antiquated days of courting are long past, and in their dusty wake are older single women and men who have enjoyed their independence and freedom without the baggage and saddling of terms such as "spinster" and "bachelor." Gone are the days when one marries the person they meet at the church social because society expects it.

The twentieth century had expectations that young men and women would go to social functions, church, or school to meet a stable spouse with whom to start a family and build a little nest egg. For most of those bygone days such a notion worked fine, but today men and women marry older and more wisely. The most recent US Census, taken in 2006, reveals that the median age for first-time to the alter men is 27.5, while the median age for first-time to the alter women is 25. The young people who marry in their mid-twenties today are the children of those now middle-aged couples who rushed into marriage straight out of school. While their marriages may have been wonderful, some of those adults who married young may be a bit jealous of others who are only ready to settle down in their forties and fifties.

And it seems that that the internet provides exactly the right kind of niche for the busy, older marriage-minded singles. Across the web, various dating and matchmaking services websites prove that you are only as old as you feel. Names like Match.com, PerfectMatch and eHarmony.com remind never-married individuals who are ready to find a soul mate as they near their golden years that there is someone for everyone out there.

In addition to the more basic online personals sites that ask questions to help a seeking mate to find his or her perfect date and weed out those who fall short, there are numerous of web sites that address specific dating markets to help narrow one's search to meet a focused segment of society. Race, creed, and religion are specified by a number of services dedicated to helping a forty-something+ singles find that special someone. Are you a Catholic woman seeking a Catholic man? Try CatholicMingle.com. Or maybe you are a Jewish fellow seeking a woman with the proper background and education. Look no further than JDate, as site specializing in pairing Jewish singles. Maybe you are Latino, or African-American, or interracial. Match making sites like LatinSinglesConnection.com, BlackSingles.com and Interracial.net will help you to shorten your search. Whatever your look or thought, there is a personal ads site made to order for you.

For the baby-boomer generation, the dating world has come a far cry from the drive-in days of the fifties or even the love-in days of the sixties and seventies. Today's boomers meet their soul mates in precisely the same way their friends' grandchildren plan to hook up--on line.

Posted at 8:34 PM on Jun 10, 2008 By 5StarDating.com