Stitch is just like Tinder… for seniors

Stitch is like Tinder, but for your grandma. Well, not exactly. Stitch isn’t just meant for hooking up, it’s meant for finding a companion to go to the movies or ballroom dancing with. For many “mature adults,” as Stitch calls them, that might be just what the doctor ordered. “Believe it or not, for seniors loneliness is a bigger killer than smoking or obesity,” founder Andrew Dowling told Vice. “The reality is that we need to stay socially connected, if we want to stay healthy.”

You know how you hate Facebook’s constant, inevitably unhelpful “updates”? Imagine being 80 years old, learning how to use a computer, then having Facebook mess you around while you’re just trying to leave an overly-earnest comment on your granddaughter’s graduation photo. For many older adults, the pace at which technology moves is prohibitive. They can’t keep up and don’t want to, so many give up. Or at least, they used to. The elderly are getting more tech savvy, participating in the internet in record numbers. According to an Ofcom report, the number of adults over 65 years of age using tablets to access the Internet jumped from five to 17 percent between 2012 and 2013. Despite this, seniors still spend significantly less time online than younger people, and use that time to do significantly fewer things. Most adults over 65 only use the Internet to check emails and browse news websites, but abstain from more complicated online tasks like banking, streaming television, or participating in social media sites.