For the second half of my ethnographic research, I wanted to find seniors online and ask them questions about their Internet use. This has been challenging because people do not outright admit they are seniors in most cases. I think it would be offensive to assume someone was a senior (and slightly embarrassing). I have been emailing and talking to a family friend who does online dating. She tells me some scary stories about the online dating world. Without going into more detail than anyone cares to know about, I’ll just share a few of her comments:
She has been dating online for over 10 years. She was married once, but they divorced a few years ago. Even though she is 70, there are many options for her. She has been on over 80 dates in the past 3 years. She commented that many older men have not stopped thinking about sex. The man often expects sex if he buys dinner! She admits to being "old fashioned" enough to think this is disrespectful. One guy implied that it was only a “real date” if they got a motel room! On the other hand, some guys are looking for friendship or a relationship. She has several people she just talks to because they’re intellectuals and great friends. Online dating isn’t the only thing my friend does online. She loves shopping for clothes and buys a lot of books from Amazon. She says she spends an average of 4-6 hours a day on her computer. This is more than average, in my opinion, because she spends a lot of time emailing. She is an author so she also spends time researching agents for her book.
On a side note, I’ve been trying to communicate with Millie (the woman who writes one of the blogs I follow). I’m waiting to hear back from her so more on that next time.
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