Online and proud

There are depths to which I won’t sink - and I’m afraid thongs, no matter how flash, really shouldn’t be anywhere but on the beach

We’ve all been there before, when a trend that was initially shunned is brought back into fashion by the same generation that first ridiculed it.

I clearly remember laughing at the people wearing flared trousers in my parents’ wedding photos, only to find myself wearing them myself 15 years later, much to the amusement of my parents.

It’s even more amusing when something that was deeply embarrassing makes a comeback, like thongs did in the very early years of the noughties, or Ugg boots now.

One moment we’re too embarrassed to admit we wear them, even within the comfort of our own homes, and the next we’re strutting around town in them, big woolly cuffs turned down and pompoms flying in all directions.

There are depths to which I won’t sink – and I’m afraid thongs, no matter how flash, really shouldn’t be worn anywhere but on the beach, while Ugg boots are like the footwear version of comfort food and should only be worn at home on cold, rainy evenings.

As I’m old enough to remember when there was some social stigma attached to internet dating, I’m particularly intrigued by the comeback it’s making among the not-yet-attached, or divorced-and-reattaching generation Xers in my midst.

But this time it has come back with a whole set of rules and jargon I don’t remember from the last time around. I can usually keep up with the conversation when it’s about profiles, and I’ve finally figured out that you don’t have to be in any kind of physical proximity in order to send a wink or a kiss. But I sat in stunned silence when a group of friends broke into squeals of delight the other day at the abbreviation LMIRL. The look of confusion on my face must have been painfully obvious because it was quickly explained to me that the letters stood for “let’s meet in real life”.

Oh, OK, sure.

With a generic mum, dad and two-kids family, it turns out that I’m a rare commodity among a generation of single parent, composite marriage, no child or super families, where three is the new two, and pets are the new kids.

It’s little wonder that Generation Xers make up more than 50 per cent of participants on online dating services such as RSVP, if for no other reason that those of us who aren’t in a relationship are a bit too old for nightclubs, and can’t afford the babysitting even if we could find a date. Besides, staying home to log on and be matched up by computer with someone with a similar profile provides better odds than trying your luck at the local, that’s if you still have a local.

In the 15 years that’s passed since a close friend shyly admitted that she’d met her beau online, generation X has taken online dating out of the closet and is proudly proclaiming its success, to the point where some of us are struggling to keep up with the jargon.

Remember that old cliché about every generation thinking it was the first to discover sex? Well it just so happens when it comes to online dating we were the first to discover it, and now I have to say, we’re perfecting the art.

BRW

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