Baby Boomers looking to make a love connection are going high-tech. They're signing up at online dating sites in growing numbers.
Online matchmakers say people 50 and up are more tech-savvy than ever.
Just ask Jerry Miller of FarmersOnly.com -- a dating site that’s not just for farmers, but ranchers, horse enthusiasts and people who simply appreciate country and small-town life.
Miller says his 5 million members range from 18 to their 90s, but Baby Boomers have become “one of our biggest segments.”
Many of those Boomers are in Texas, he says. They’re divorced or widowed or “never got around” to finding their true love, he says.
Online dating also serves, for some, as a refuge for people ages 50-plus who have friends who make unsolicited – and often unsuccessful – efforts at playing matchmaker.
Miller’s site is promoted by TV commercials that rely on comedy – a deliberate effort to show that dating is supposed to be fun.
Sites likes eHarmony and match.com are also growing for middle-age and senior romance – places on the cyber frontier to meet, date and even marry.
FarmersOnly.com says it growth is coming from “just good old-fashioned, down-to-earth people who live in small towns and rural areas” – many of them the children of the postwar era.