“Can I get a DATE FOR Valentine's Day? Watch this space...

Louise Connolly tries a new dating app that has the answers for the 50+ market

Dating should be easy and in my twenties it was. Surrounded by friends of both sexes, and meeting new people all the time at parties, clubs, polytechnic and work, I had a constant flow of steady boyfriends that would last about a year each, then the next one would turn up.

I met my future husband at my local pub. We got married, had two children and moved to the suburbs. But, like so many marriages, it didn’t last, and I found myself on my own in my mid-forties. At first, I loved it. I assumed that a new man was just around the corner. So I waited for fate to happen. Well, it didn’t. I’m not saying that I didn’t meet anyone, but no long-term potentials.

Recently, friends persuaded me to go online. Like 73% of those aged 50-59 I have a smartphone, and I’m social media-savvy! (Over-55s are expected to represent the second biggest demographic on Facebook by the end of 2018.) At first, I enjoyed all the attention and messaging. I went on a few dates and met some interesting men, but we lacked chemistry. I’ve had conversations that never developed into a date – they would disappear after a few messages. I’ve also been approached online by young men not much older than my children! So when I heard about the new over-50only app Lumen, I signed up. It’s free to join and use, and every user is photoverified, so you feel safer. You have to upload three photos of yourself plus a bit about you and your interests and, crucially, what you’re looking for. This encourages longer conversations between members. Also, icebreaker messages have to be at least 50 characters to avoid just a “hi”. Lumen limits new conversations among members to three a day, so those who take part invest a little more into what they’re saying. You have 72 hours to respond to a message before they disappear if you aren’t interested. It looks good.

So, hopefully this will make dating easy again. Here I go… wish me luck! Look out for how Louise gets on in future issues of woman&home.

“every user is photo verified, so you feel safer”