First, you were teaching Grandpa how to Facebook. And now? He’s swiping left and right for romance.
Don’t worry, your grandfather isn’t going to show up in your Tinder (MTCH) feed. He’s off to find a “companion” on Stitch, a soon-to-be-released dating app designed for the over 50 crowd.
The brain child of Aussie Andrew Dowling, Stitch matches local seniors who are looking for “friends, marriage, and everything in between,” the website says. If it’s anything like Tinder, we expect these seniors are going to be a lot more than friends.
Though the app hasn’t been released yet, Dowling says there won’t be a chat feature; these baby boomers would rather speak on the phone. It’s understandable for anyone who’s watched their Grandma type an email, one slow keystroke at a time.
Stitch’s founder argues it’s not just a companionship app — it’s a life saver.
“Believe it or not, for seniors loneliness is a bigger killer than smoking or obesity,” Dowling told VICE. “The reality is that we need to stay socially connected, if we want to stay healthy.”
While we aren’t sure there’s a huge market of tech-savvy seniors, Ofcom reported that the number of 65- to 74-year-olds accessing the web with a tablet (who gave Grandma the iPad?) jumped from 5% to 17% between 2012 and 2013.
So maybe it’s time single Grandma or Grandpa got an iPhone. Or maybe swinger Grandma and Grandpa, since Stitch suggests married or “taken adults” look for “activity partners” on its website.
Uh, ok. We’ll try to scrub that image out of our minds.
Good luck, Gramps.