Valentine's Day is a big day for Baby Boomers.
Any other day of the year, an ugly sweater or a cheap-looking pair of earrings is just further evidence of your poor shopping skills. On Valentine's Day, it becomes a "symbol of our relationship." Get it wrong, and it may be your last.
After changing social attitudes to sex, the post-war generation is still enjoying the benefits of the sexual revolution. Respondents in long-term relations have reported having the best sex ever, but Baby Boomers who changed their partners in their forties are the most sexually active.
In love and marriage, most of us believe that opposites attract. However, Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder of the online dating service eHarmony.com, is not a big believer in the concept that opposites attract. Even if they do, he argues, they won't last. As a marriage counselor, he says, he performed hundreds of "autopsies" on failed relationships and realized that most of the people didn't belong together in the first place.
So eHarmony.com and other online dating services are offering compatibility questionnaires to determine where a potential match exists. Yahoo! Personals has developed personality tests that put like-minded members together. And Match.com is offering dating advice from TV's Dr. Phil McGraw.
As the oldest boomers turn 60 this year, more of them are single than any previous cohort of forty-to-sixty-somethings. More than a third of all online daters are over 45 and 19% make more than $100,000 a year, says Hitwise. Industry pioneer Match.com reports that 7% of its 8 million members call themselves executives (while the government classifies 4% of the workforce as managers).
They're more likely to be divorced (36%), have dogs (30%), and enjoy wine tastings (20%) than other singles. They tend to list their eyes as their best feature. As expected, Manhattan has the highest percentage of execs (29%) who find power a turn-on; Las Vegas has the biggest share (22%) who say money is.
And yes, older men want younger women (even though younger women just aren't into them). Match.com says male execs in L. A. typically seek women 13 years younger. About 25% of eHarmony.com's men over 55 are interested in women 40 or younger.
Aging Boomers are facing the ‘use it or lose it’ proposition when it comes to their sexual health. So they’re getting pumped up to re-invent their sexuality...and...Valentine's Day is the most pumped up day of the year for Boomers to show their stuff.
For more on what is this thing called love and the half-a-billion-dollar-a-year online dating industry, go to: www.WhatisLove.info
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