Are you a Republican or Democrat? According to a study by dating website Match, most people looking to date wouldn’t care one way or another, but something has changed in 2016, and people are becoming more polarized and politically active.  

Perhaps it’s the entertainment aspect that Donald Trump has brought to the campaign trail, or the enthusiastic support of Bernie Sanders among young liberal voters, but something has shifted in the collective American psyche---so much so, that it has inspired two new dating apps.

So now the question has become: Are you a fan of Bernie Sanders, or not a fan of Donald Trump? Regardless of how you feel, there are two new dating sites you should know about.

Bernie Singles launched a few months back, when app developers found that there was a real market for young activists looking to meet each other – for friendship or something more. It seemed that many Bernie Sanders fans on Facebook were eager to meet like-minded activists in person, and there was an instant show of support for the dating app.

Bernie Singles definitely embraces the progressive slant of the candidate who first inspired it. When you join, you can register as male, female, genderqueer or transgender - and as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, queer or asexual. There’s no gender bias, which also seems to be a good selling point.

In fact, so many people downloaded it when it first launched that the site crashed in the first week. Several thousand have joined to date.

Not to ignore the dating app potential with the current political groundswell of young activists, there will soon be an app for those looking to avoid a Trump Presidency. Maple Match, whose tagline is “Make Dating Great Again” – a play on Trump’s campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again” – has been making headlines with the announcement of its product, coming soon to market.  The app promises to find Americans who are looking to flee a potential Trump Presidency some Canadian matches. Even before its launch, 5,000 people have signed up for the site.

As it turns out, Trump isn’t the only reason Americans want to flee the country. According to a recent interview in The Guardian, Joe Goldman, Maple Match’s founder said: "This site shows that a lot of people are frustrated with the current dating options. A lot of Americans really want to meet Canadians. They're looking for something new and something better."

Bernie Singles is coy in its approach, noting on its website: “The one percent aren’t the only ones getting screwed this election season!” 

Either way, politics has entered the mix in online dating. We'll see what happens in 2017.

Badoo recently launched a photo verification feature which asks new users to verify their profile by sending one to Badoo of them performing a specific gesture which allows a Badoo moderator to compare the person in the photo with the rest of the users photos. If they matched then the photo's and profile for that member is deemed verified.

Last week Badoo let us know that they have added a new feature to their iOS and Android dating apps which allows users to upload 15 second video clips. Before going live the video will be reviewed for inappropriate content by one of Badoo's 5,000 moderators (the same ones which review photos). Badoo decided to add this feature because videos allows online daters to get a sense of what the person they are interested is like. You can expect to see video's from members which show their sense of humor, creative skills, unique quirks, and other insights from the member.

For more about this dating service you can read our review of Badoo.

Some break-ups are worse than others, but all break-ups can take a toll on our mental and emotional state. How many times have you chosen to distract yourself from the pain and sadness you feel? Probably more than you think – sometimes by going out with friends, drinking, or having sex, and other times by throwing yourself into work, a hobby or a new fitness routine.

Now, more and more of us are turning to dating apps to swipe and feel that little “rush” from matching with a new profile or engaging in some flirtatious messaging. And why not? It’s healthy to flirt, to meet new people, right?

Not necessarily. Using dating apps as a distraction – to swipe through endless profiles – can work against you and delay the healing process after a break-up. As a writer for website Bustle described it: “An unexpected match with an attractive guy would briefly pull me out from under the cloud of sadness, and it validated my future dating potential in the most superficial way possible. At the time, I knew that it was wrong for the approval of random strangers to mean more to me than the unconditional support from my friends and family, but I didn't want to stop swiping: the next match could always be better than the last…After the fleeting glow from a witty text exchange faded, the positive feelings about myself did, too.”

Distracting ourselves isn’t always the best thing for getting over a break-up. Healing is a process – it’s good to feel your emotions and come to terms with your broken heart. Healthy transformation comes from this process of sitting with pain so we can let go and move on. Distraction only serves to delay our healing.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s good to throw yourself into something healthy, like joining a new running group or growing that garden you always wanted. But when you try and ignore your feelings, opting for quick fixes like the rush from swiping through a dating app, it can backfire.

The “high” you feel from superficial interaction is fleeting, and can leave you feeling worse than you did before – and more likely to swipe. In fact, swiping can become a validation exercise, rather than a healthy way to meet dates. You don’t want to confuse the app itself with your ability to connect with people.

Our self worth doesn’t come from how many matches or messages we get, or how many opportunities we have to meet new people. We have to feel grounded in ourselves – confident in our abilities, independence, and worthiness – rather than dependent on what others think – especially random strangers over text.

So next time you are tempted to login to Tinder after a break-up because you are in desperate need of distraction or validation, call your friend and go out for dinner instead. You’ll be happier and healthier in the long run.

 

Christian Café is having 2 sales this month on membership subscriptions. The first one starts May 16th and runs to for a week, and the second one runs during Memorial Day weekend. Both give percentage discounts on subscriptions and are available on the membership upgrade page during the time they are offered.

From Monday May 16th, to Tuesday May 24th, 2016 you will receive 15% off when you purchase a 3 month subscription. This mid-May sale means a 3 month membership will only cost you about $40.

For the Memorial Day Weekend sale which runs from May 27th to May 31st, 2016 you can save up to 25% off any membership. Depending on the membership this means you could see a savings of over $25.

One of the great things about Christian Café is they offer a 10 day free trial to all new visitors. All you need to do is signup for a free membership and fill in your profile, and upload a photo. No credit card is required. With the free trial you have full access to the service including sending and receiving emails and participation in the Christian forum. This allows you to find out more about the members close to you and if online dating is something you want to continue with.

Another perk of an upgraded Christian Café memberships is, it allows you to contact all members, including free ones. Most other dating services require both members to have paid before each can commutate. This is not true with Christian Café, as once the paid member initiate the conversation both members will be able to send and receive emails to each other.

For more information about this Christian dating service, please read our Christian Cafe review.

There seems to be a new dating app launching every week. In such a crowded market, you’d think investors and developers would shy away from creating something new, but it seems everyone is trying to take a piece of the dating market away from Tinder.

However, I came across a new app trying in a more interesting way to differentiate itself from the popular app – not by being more “female-focused” or offering profile verification as other competing apps are doing, but by focusing on what the actual goal is – the real-life date.

Dating app Dine offers users a chance to match not only through common interests, but through restaurant preferences. According to the company, the goal is to get you from an online match to an actual date – dinner or drinks – as quickly as possible. (Avoiding the Tinder problem of messaging endlessly with no results.) The app is integrated with Yelp to offer local eating choices.

Dine is owned by Mrk & Co., founded by veterans of Japanese gaming giant DeNA, which Nintendo partnered with to bring its games to Smartphones last year. But Dine isn’t incorporating the game-like elements of Tinder or its parent companies' popular games in its dating app. Its premise is similar to dating website How About We, where people can search for matches based on ideas they come up with for a first date. But Dine is all about the eating experience.

The concept of Dine is simple: After filling out your profile, you pick three restaurants or bars where you’d want to meet for a date. Dine offers you 2-5 potential matches per day, along with which three places they chose, so you can request to go on a date at a particular location.

When you send someone a date request and they match (accept), you can message each other. However – Dine provides users with suggested messages ready to go, with the language focused on scheduling a date and time for your meet-up. Of course you can erase their suggestions and add your own message, but the app is focused on getting you to set the date and meet in person.

According to an article in Business Insider, about half of accepted requests lead to actual dates within a two-week period, at least for the beta phase of the Dine app launch.

Dine has now launched all over the U.S. and Canada. Also noteworthy: Apple was impressed enough with the concept to feature it on its list of "best new apps".

Senior sex may be the butt of many a movie joke, but there’s nothing funny about it. An eye-opening study by the dating service Elite Singles of 2667 Americans has revealed the sexual behaviors of the elderly - and it turns out their early bedtimes aren’t just about getting more sleep.

The survey found that 91% of over-70s considered sex to be ‘important’ in a relationship, with 33% rating it as ‘very important’. And in contrast to what many believe about gender relations in the younger generations, it’s older women who are more enthusiastic about hitting the sack. Eighty-seven percent of women think the quality of sex improves with age and experience, compared to 77% of men.

In fact, according to the study, seniors over 70 have a higher desire for sex than singles aged 18-30. Celibacy was considered less acceptable for older singles than for younger ones. While 19% of respondents in the 18-30 range said they were ‘happy without sex in a relationship’, just 9% of seniors said the same.

The over-70s were also more accepting of casual sex. Seventy-five percent said there is no need to postpone sex until a solid relationship commitment is made, a sentiment shared by only 56% of younger singles. So not only are senior singles getting it on, they’re getting it on with fewer hang-ups than the supposedly free-spirited Millennials. They’re also enjoying themselves more - 81% said sex, like the proverbial wine, gets better with age.

But it’s not all about sex. Single seniors may have been around the block (more than once), but they haven’t lost faith in love. Even after break-up, separation, and divorce, 97% believe you can fall in love at any age and 62% say cupid’s arrow can strike at first sight. Superficial attraction remains important no matter what decade you’re in, with the face, chest, and hair being voted the top 3 most attractive features in an older person.

Psychologist Salama Marine weighed in on the results of the study. “People tend to feel uncomfortable with the idea of senior sexuality because it has nothing to do with reproduction; senior sex is purely about love and sexual fulfilment,” she said. “But in a society often too associated with youth, we tend to forget that there is no age limit to desire and eroticism. We must recognise that today’s seniors have lived through society's sexual liberalisation and enjoy the same sexual freedom as the rest of us.”

Time to get grandma on Elite Singles and grandpa taking shirtless selfies.