Why dating gets harder the older you get

Last Update : November 12, 2015

It’s true that the older you get the more difficult dating becomes. You feel like the dating pool progressively gets smaller but not only that you become older and wiser about what you want in a potential partner. Here is a list we’ve compiled of some of the reasons why dating as you get into your 20’s 30’s and so on feels more difficult and daunting.

It’s difficult approaching new people. When you’re still in your 20s meeting and starting conversations with new people isn’t that difficult as you’re constantly meeting new people. However once you reach your 30s, 40s and 50s it becomes more and more awkward to approach a stranger and ask them out on a date.

Social media and cell phones have ruined our social capabilities. This is particularly true for those still in their 20s. It’s difficult to speak and get to someone if they’re on their phone every two seconds. It’s also changed the way we communicate between dates, instead of picking up the phone and actually speaking to a person we choose to shoot a few text messages back and forth. This is much more impersonal and also opens up a whole new tin of worms of reading too much into messages and misinterpreting them.

Looks have faded – well all know we’re in our prime in our late teens early 20s. When you’re young you can often get by on being handsome or pretty to get yourself a date. As you get older you need to actually showcase your personality more to get yourself a date.

The good ones are taken – the saying there’s plenty more fish in the sea becomes les and les true with every year that passes in the dating world. As you get older it can feel like all the non-balding good looking men and intelligent attractive women are already taken.

It’s harder to meet someone with your goals. One of the great things about getting older is you also grow wiser. As time goes on you become more certain about what you do and don’t want in life. On the flip side this makes it more difficult finding someone that wants the same things and not dismissing those who don’t.

The wide variety of dating sites out there these days have made dating as you get older much easier. You can more easily find people of the same age looking for the same things in life; you can find our ranking of the best dating sites in New Zealand here.