The necessity of third places
Ray Oldenberg coined the term “third place” in 1989 to describe our social centers. In the OG definition, the first place is home, the second place is work. The third place is a shared place to socialize that’s neither home nor work, distinguished by conversation and playfulness, familiar faces but no formal membership, freedom to come and go as you please, home away from home.
Think: pubs, taverns, bars, cafes, coffeeshops, barbershops, community centers, markets, malls, churches, libraries, parks, clubs and organizations, main streets, public squares, block parties, town meetings, bingo, hallways at conferences or schools.
Now the internet belongs on that list. Third places have been hacked into existence from the very early stages of using computers to talk to each other. We can recast our social circles online through the lens of places: one-on-one or small group chats is more like a first place; the email inbox has become a second place1, used for work and official communications; social media is the third place, the aimless hangout spot, the community social center.
Third places are:
- a leveler (what counts is your personality, not your station in life)
- a way to reduce isolation and expand social circles
- a place to foster the kind of repeated, unplanned interactions that can form deeper relationships
- essential in forming new social movements
This is more surprising to me than thinking of the internet as a third place. But yes, in most instances—if you don’t intentionally maintain a penpal over email instead of text—email = work. ↩︎