Do you lie about your age?
So many people lie about their age, especially on the net - I’m really surprised by the high incidence. I didn’t realize it until someone in the chatroom asked me my age and I said 59. His reply? “So, it’s really 63 or 64?” I suppose I should have said, “it’s none of your business” or “look it up on my profile, stupid,” but I just blurted it out. I’m not ashamed of my age — it’s certainly made me the person I am today.
Over the years I can count heaps of people who have asked for advice after they’ve lied about their age. For instance, a guy lies about his age (honestly, liars are 50/50 in the gender mix) and ends up getting a reply to his ad. Things progress to a real life meeting and then what does he do? He writes to us for advice. There is no easy solution because no matter what happens, the other person knows you’re a liar. If you’ll lie about your age to get a date or get noticed or for whatever reason you justify lying, you’ll probably lie about more important issues as well.
I’ve seen a lot of successful people who are young at heart write something like — I’m 57 but I look and act 45. This tells the person reading the ad or bio that you don’t look your age, nor do you act or even feel that age. Then there’s nothing to cover up.
I remember one guy that lied was in England and his online sweetheart was American. She was late 30’s and he said he was 35. Turns out he was over 50. They had a hot, lusty email and chat affair and she was totally smitten with the guy. She got up her courage and said she was going to fly to England to meet him. What was he going to do? He knew he’d really screwed things up so he did the only thing he could think of — he died. Not a real death, just a cyber death. The woman wrote to me and I could almost touch her pain. His uncle had found her email address on his nephew’s computer and he wanted to let her know. She wrote to me, she even asked for my phone number so she could talk with me.
I’m not a spring chicken and I had my doubts. When I asked if she was sure he died, she could have put needles in my eyes for sure. How could I treat her AND his memory like that? Well, when you own the site, you have access to the login details and he’d logged in after he died, so either he was way more clever than other people who’ve died or he was doing a bit of fakey fakey.
Then, within a few days after his umm.. funeral, who should join our site but his uncle. Turns out his uncle is a bit over 50 and realizes how smart his nephew was to have found such a wonderful young woman. You can guess the rest. He wanted to meet the woman and thank her for being so kind and loving to his nephew. From the back end I could see that he was coming in from the same IP as his “nephew” and was logging in to both accounts.
When the woman told me she was going to send money to help pay for the funeral, I had to say something and told her the facts that I had. She confronted him over the phone and he admitted that he’d lied about his age and couldn’t tell her so he had to kill himself, internetically speaking.
So, if you’re thinking about lying about your age, remember this guy and spare yourself an early online death. You’ll be much happier and you’ll meet much better people who will appreciate your honesty and character.
I hope the old coot learned his lesson, but I doubt it. I’m 54 btw, no lie.
Yeah, why lie about age? Either way, you lose! Who will trust you? Can’t people just be thankful for reaching an old age? It’s the number of years of experience you garnered. It’s the number of years God blessed you life with. It’s the number of years of survival. It’s seniority. It’s you.
Age is so relative anyway. My daughter is 18 and dating a guy who is 28. They’re perfect for each other and he doesn’t look or act his age. He’s more like 23 or 24 and a total sweetheart. It’s better to just be honest about your age and about who you are from the start.
Only in my mid forties and loving every minute of it. I am proud of my age. Men are the ones that are afaid of age not women.
My young colleagues called me the ‘granny’ of the team because I am older a few years than them. Why should I be ashamed? And why would one lie about the age?
Billy, an English friend is 60 and he’s so proud of his age. He definitely can’t wait for his next travel, because he won’t have to pack anything.
Hi! I don’t lie about my age. I’m proud to be a dinosaur!
***From FeelingFlirty — I hardly think you’re a dinosaur! Maybe a Tasmanian Tiger
Internetically speaking…let’s get that in the official vocab soon (lol).
Not saying it’s right just that the internet makes one seem so old…
Since we know people are always bending the truth maybe we should all just assume everyone is “bending”, that way there are no surprises.
** From FeelingFlirty - in that case, I’m 39.