View from Venus: AARP gets in the dating business

Randi Martin, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – The Game of Love can be a digital game, but many singles over age 50 find themselves out in the cold.

Online computer skills and social media networking may be terms many don’t even recognize – but not for long.

AARP has teamed up with innovative dating site www.HowAboutWe.com to offer mature singles the chance to mingle.

HowAboutWe.com offers a chance for immediate responses. Instead of looking at the same old profiles and questions, singles are asked “How about we…” and then fill in the blanks.

How about we – go to the Kennedy Center for a show? How about we – go for a bike ride on the C and O canal?

“There’s nothing better than a dating site that gets you offline and connecting based on an experience you want to share and seeing if there’s a spark,” says Brian Schechter, howaboutwe.com co-founder and CEO.

AARP liked the fact that you have to find common ground first before even thinking of responding, and then you go and do!

“Doing something together and having something of common interest with each other before you go on a date is really helpful,” says Sami Hassanyeh, senior vice president of AARPs digital strategies and operations, who adds that 25 percent of AARP members are single.

A View from Venus is all for sparks for people of all ages, so hooray for AARP for listening to its members and responding to their needs. The organization is even offering a nine-week dating boot camp for those who have been out of the dating scene for a while and are a little rusty.

The Game of Love is getting a lot easier.

Editor’s Note: View from Venus is a regular blog by Randi Martin, who shares her thoughts on lifestyles and relationships.

Follow @WTOPLiving on Twitter.

(Copyright 2013 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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