Aging Adults about Online Dating: “I am back on the relationship market!”

• Authors: Karmen Erjavec , Suzana ŽILIČ FIŠER
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The incidence of increasing aging populations and the popularity of online dating point to the importance of examining aging adults’ involvement in online dating. The study uses semi-structured in-depth interviews with 38 individuals from Slovenia aged 63 to 74. The analysis reveals than the majority of the participants claimed that they had access to a large market of potential partners by use of online dating. They used economic metaphors and related them with extremely positive expressions of recovery: we are alive again because we are back on the relationship market. Their decision to seek a partner through online dating meant that they were once again active in a socially important space, which stimulated a sense of revitalization. Even though the participants lived the majority of their lives under socialism, they have internalized the principles of the market economy and perceive their re-entry into the relationship market as their revival.

Keywords

EN

online dating; older adult; later life; post-socialism; in-depth interviews

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne
• Journal: Polish Sociological Review
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 195
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 361-372

Dates

published

2016-09-25

Contributors

author

Karmen Erjavec

author

Suzana ŽILIČ FIŠER