#third places

[betty-bourgeoisie]

The thing I find most concerning about the sudden and rapid declines of platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and to a lesser extent Discord and Facebook, is the loss of digital third places that will result from it.

[Definition: a Third Place is a space outside of work or the home that you spend a significant amount of time in. Usually a social gathering place like a church, library, park, or gym]

It's a known issue that physical third places are disappearing. Cities, malls, and shopping centers have cracked down hard on loitering, resulting in a lack of public space for people to just hang out in. Parks exist, but their use is usually dependent on weather conditions. Church attendance has been in decline for decades for a lot of reasons I won't get into here. Libraries exist but they're not a good place to talk with friends. And pretty much every other third place I can think of (bars, game stores, bookstores, coffee shops, etc) requires you to spend money if you want to be there. None of these are new observations, smarter people than myself have written whole books on the loss of in-person third places.

Social media has been filling in the gap left by these third places for the last couple of decades. As physical space has become less accessible we've migrated online to find community - and especially during COVID, social media was really the only place you could socialize with others. None of this is new information either.

But the current issue, that I've seen very few people talking about, is that companies are starting to price and bully people out of those digital third places the same way they did with physical third places. The difference is that it's happening much faster, and usually at the whim of just one or two people. These are not broader sociological trends slowly shutting down social spaces like what we saw with the decline of shopping malls. There will be no slow adjustment to another social medium. We are seeing individual billionaires making a choice in real time to monetize people out of some of the only public social spaces we have left.

I've seen people bemoaning the loss of information that comes with these sites collapsing, but personally, I am far more concerned with the loss of social space. Don't get me wrong, social media of all kinds is an absolute nightmare, but for many people (and especially for teenagers who have more restrictions on where they can go and what money they can spend) online space is one of the only places they can reliably go to socialize.

In a country like the U.S. where the federal government is calling loneliness an epidemic this is actually a much bigger concern than I think a lot of people realize. How many people have more online friends than in-person ones? What happens to rates of loneliness as social media platforms become inaccessible and people lose those connections?

Obviously, the preferred answer is that people will go make more friends in person, but remember that in-person social spaces have already been severely limited. This is not the easy option that you might hope it is.

My actual call to action on this is to fucking fight to get your in-person third places back. Talk to your local representatives about repealing loitering laws - organize protests or ballot initiatives about it if you have to. Work with rotary clubs and parks departments to fund new public restrooms and park shelters. If there are places in your community that provide free workshop spaces/ game nights/ art walks/ etc go to them and support them financially when and if you're able. Go to your local library and check out a book so they get more funding! I know this shit can be boring, but things are only going to get worse if people don't have places where they can connect with each other. We can't keep letting capitalists take community spaces from us.

#reddit #twitter #social media #third places #long post #196 #rant

[alpaca-clouds]

Solarpunk and the Third Place

Let's talk about third places. It is a topic that has been brought up in a lot of Solarpunk and leftwing places have brought up during the last few months. Andrewism has made a video on it for example. And given that during the last few weeks I actually made a lot of use of third places, I thought I also could talk a bit more about it.

See, I have spoken about this: Due to my roommate just being very hard to live with right now, I kinda fled my home. (Which yes, is due to her mental health, but that does not make it any better for me.) And basically I just looked into: Where the hell could I spend my time?

And then I remembered the thing that I did throughout my youth: Hang out at gaming stores and, well, play games. I did that a lot for so long, given it is often a place for nerds to gather. And yeah, what can I say? It still works.

Heck, I found even someone who plays Digimon Cards with me.

But of course we do know - again it has been discussed a lot - that in recent times a lot of third places have either been erased, or the way we live have stopped the third places to work the way they used to work like this.

Let's quickly go over what a third place is: A third place is a place where you can hang out and get to know people. A place distinct from the place you live and the place you work in (or school, for students). Stuff like a park, a café, a library... things like that. Places that encourage you to interact with new people and start conversations.

Recently those places have been destroyed a lot. Partly because a lot of them have become hard to afford (especially on a regular basis), partly because they have become shut down, and partly because our culture actually does no longer encourage interacting with strangers.

And, I mean. Yeah. Parks are counted among third places, but honestly, I cannot remember that I actually interacted with a stranger in a park. If a stranger talks to me, I am afraid they are a creep. And if I see someone I think I could get along with, I do not dare to talk to them.

The fact that most of us run around glued to our electric devices (I am counting myself there as well) does not help this fact, right? If I am sitting in a café, I am usually working on my laptop, which will make it less likely that folks interact with me. And, of course, my autistic self will also not do that in turn.

Solarpunk both as a genre and a vision for the future is very much build around the idea of community and working together as a community. And for that we need third places in Solarpunk futures. Places that are easily accessible and that people can just go to to talk to people.

But more than that, Solarpunk also needs a society and social rules that actually allow for folks to interact with each other, talk to each other and ask each other for help and stuff.

Sure, there also need to be safe and silent spaces for people with needs like that (including autistic folks like me). And really... Frankly, I would not know how to talk with someone outside a nerd context, lol.

#solarpunk #lunarpunk #third places #community #community building #cooperation #hang out #parks #society #we live in a society #social life

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

I made a couple of posts here a while ago about the Third Spaces. Third spaces are places that aren't home or work that you could hang out for free, and are traditionally how people made friends found relationship partners, and in general helped with mental health because there were places where you can go outside, socialize, etc.

Except the content that I posted about Third places talk about the loss of third places being do to zoning laws and the suburban crawl (which can be attributed to racism sure).

But no one is talking about the loss of third places being from the fact that we shut them all down when everything was desegregated because we didn't want to share them with Black people.

Next time you hear people bitching about the only place you can go to hang out are places that serve alcohol, or it's hard to make friends because where do you go to meet people, or the dating scene is hard because everything costs money.

Be sure to teach them about third places and the fact that we had many free public spaces, but they were all shut down because we didn't want to share them with Black people.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRCAfPQQ/

-fae

#black lives matter #blm #black lives still matter #third places #racism #desegregation #mental health

[cryptic-rainfall]

I just watched this video about the loss of third spaces and it reminded me of how kids don't play outside as much anymore the way my peers and I did, it had me thinking about how cafes and restaurants and other businesses that could exist as third spaces push you out as soon as they can because having you hanging out for 4 hours is not as profitable as many many people coming and going.

I think overall this is one of the things driving my loneliness, third spaces are scarce, and the ones that exist tend to be expensive, or loud, or expect you to already come with a friend. and the video is absolutely right, online spaces are not replacements; they fill a different niche entirely. but a lot of people try to fill that hole with social media, and of course it doesn't work, and it even sometimes does more damage.

and I am also thinking of how I've noticed lately that folks around my age and older, when we walk past eachother we greet eachother, we hold best intentions, we socialize even just a moment with small talk or a smile or a nod. even when we look different, or come from different walks of live, or even if we know eachother and don't like eachother. and how that's really it, that's the community, and just from an interaction like that you can see in others if they have a collective care or not. I'm having friendly small talk with people I never imagined making small talk with, and I realize despite all our differences, we have a collective care for our community, to some extent. and it's such a refresh from the individualist mindset where everyone minds their own business and strangers don't greet eachother in passing.

anyway, please watch the video, it was a good one

#social issues #third place #third space #third places #third spaces

[wormdramafever]

Generational Distress. The End of Childhood.

By Marta Trivi.

Article in spanish by Marta Trivi about Goodbye Volcano High's themes and how it reflects the current times. Some roughly translated highlights:

In the visual novel Goodbye Volcano high, the end of adolescence and the transition to adulthood overlap with the end of times. The result is a faithful portrait of the nihilism and hopelessness of Generation Z. [...] For [Charlie] Coombs, the disenchantment that the youngest people show in regards to the future, as well as their obsession with the now and with the inconsequentiality of our existence, is nothing more than a symptom of the current times, a response to a social and political present that is totally indifferent to our actions. Because of this, it's easy to consider Goodbye Volcano High as a work as generational as Reality Bites; a game extremely stuck to its time whose construction and dramatic development are inseparable from a post-pandemic society that little by little begins to accept the harsh consequences of climate change. Some of the most sincere and realistic parts of the KO_OP title seem lifted straight from the early days of pre-lockdown uncertainty. Because, as we saw at the beginning of 2020, the news capable of changing our reality, far from plunging us into the absolute panic that other fictions reflect, often goes under our radar or is reduced to little more than an anecdote. [...] No one who has lived through the weeks before lockdown will find it strange the way in which the teenagers of Volcano High seem to live until the very end in a contradiction by which the end of the world is as real as their aspirations to go to university or win in the battle of the bands. [...] But the nihilism of Fang and company is not the only thing that makes Goodbye Volcano High a generational work. Throughout the story, the characters move between a small number of locations. [...] Unlike other stories starring teenagers, from Grease to Life is Strange, through Mean Girls or Riverdale, Goodbye Volcano High does not have "third places", meeting places outside the private home and work (in this case school) in which we can come into contact with the community and meet quietly and for hours with our friends. [...] But although these third places are, for many sociologists like Ramon Oldenburg, essential for public health, Generation Z is the first to be growing up without them, using virtual spaces to socialize (from private messaging groups to social networks). [...] Many key scenes in Goodbye Volcano High take place inside Fang's cell phone as they immerse themselves in a more than expressive immobility: eyes fixed on the screen while message balloons appear and scroll on the side. Being with their friends outside of school is, in reality, sitting and looking at your cell phone. [...] And this is not dramatic, it is simply real.

(note: the article uses gender neutral words to refer to the non-binary protagonist, using online translators may not reflect this)

#goodbye volcano high #Marta Trivi #anait games #visual novel #nihilism #gen z #gen z culture #pandemic #lockdown #lgbtq #non binary #reality bites #grease #life is strange #mean girls #riverdale #generation z #the pandemic #third places #indie games #gvh #spanish

[tenderbittersweet]

Stop me if I've posted this before, but...

I saw a tumblr post ages ago that’s stuck with me. It discussed how Americans lack a “third place.” Everywhere you go that isn’t home or work is likely to require that you make a purchase before being able to use the space (e.g. cafes, restaurants, malls, theaters, etc.) We have very few places where we’re allowed to just exist and come and go as we please. There are a few places you can go, but those places have certain requirements attached to them. For example, you can go to the park, but you won’t have any comfort or privacy because it’s a place mostly meant for kids and weather can hamper outdoor plans. Or you might go to the library, but there is a volume requirement and also lacks privacy. This is compounded by the fact that many public places have signs up that say “no loitering” or “no biking/skateboarding/scooters.” Which means that you’ll potentially be removed from the premises simply for not buying something or for not driving a car. America is downright inhospitable.

#text post #living in america #america #third places #personal #op

[coulsonlives]

Recently, I saw a post about how it's good to leave the house every once in a while and get fresh air, and it got me thinking. Because yup, fresh air is great, it can be shitty for mental health if you're cooped up a lot, if you don't change your scenery!

But: that last part made me think about my experience as a kid, and I'm sad about it. When I was a kid, I was in a suburban neighborhood. Technically, I could leave the house and go for walks and get fresh air anytime I wanted. But it was awful for me, and how my mind worked!

I couldn't possibly walk to anything, because the nearest amenity was a 7/11, and it was like an hour-long walk there and back. So the whole idea of walking felt meaningless, unsatisfying. And there were no sidewalks, so I stressed out abt having to use the same road that people drove their vehicles on (and in this day and age, nobody pays attention on the road, so yikes). There were no distinguishing 'landmarks' to help me keep track of where I was, not even any trees, just cookie cutter houses and lawns and very same-y roads, so I always got lost (yep lol, in my own neighborhood!). Maybe I was getting fresh air, but the process made me feel dumb and lonely and confused.

I was basically walking around, day in and day out, in some empty liminal space where all the houses looked the same, where I could walk for literal hours and never feel like I was going anywhere, like I was on a treadmill, and it kinda messed with me. We didn't even have a park nearby. It was literally just this. Day in and day out. Nothing ever changed. There were no events or anything, nothing to look forward to, past putting on some new music on headphones. I barely saw another person. When I did see someone, they were always in a car, trying to get out of the neighborhood to go somewhere that was actually interesting and not mind-numbingly empty!

It was super shitty. Yep, it got me out of the house which was good, but it could've been so much better if there had just been. A freakin park, or a place to gather and actually see other people (these are called 'third places' and suburbs, like, never have them!). Even if I didn't need to talk to anyone, and I just wanted to people-watch, I would've loved something like that. Alas, there was no chance for spontaneous interactions, or for fun, interesting things to happen, which I think is super super underrated, and a big part of 'getting out of the house' as a complete package.

Gonna link to a Vox article, bc I thought it was really insightful:

How our housing choices make adult friendships more difficult - Vox

#i remember talking to someone w low vision and they found it super shitty too bc they couldn't drive #so they had to rely on someone else to drive them everywhere outside of the suburb (ie anywhere interesting) #bc there weren't even any buses in service in the area which they might have been able to take themselves #i think the word they used was 'degrading' #third places #third place #neighborhoods #car dependence #urban planning #mental health #self care #vox #accessibility

[punksrespectpronouns]

girl help i'm upset about our lack of "third places" to exist in again. and also our lack of places to exist in the public sphere without a price tag attached

#banquo rambles #third places #community space

[dylsexai]

“Loitering is a crime” bitch you mean existing outside your house? I can’t just stand in a public place that isn’t a business without it being a crime?

Capitalism is so bad it can’t handle the competition from an outdoor space so they make it a crime to “loiter”

#capitalism #loitering #third places

[ellapastoral]

In this video, I’m gonna be talking about how we no longer have third spaces and how the current state of the Internet is in hell

#Youtube #flash #adobe flash #adobe flash player #flash player #flash games #adobe flash dead #adobe flash games #adobe flash end of life #adobe flash player discontinued #death of adobe flash #adobe kills flash #flash animation flash games #the flash game #2000s flash games #the flash game pc #the art of flash games #third places #third space #the third space #lack of third spaces #third places video essay #third places for mental health #gen alpha ipad kids #the great good place

[betty-bourgeoisie]

Actually tbh, I think the third spaces that are most helpful are public food courts. Like yeah you can go buy food in a public food court, but you can also just sit without paying for anything if you want to. It's warm, it's undercover, you can talk with a friend without being shushed, there's usually public restrooms and they're usually pretty well maintained. Not to mention they can be really good places to hold larger events.

My city has two actually public food courts, and a couple other semi-public food courts inside of shopping centers and they are always being used by people meeting up with friends, people playing board games and card games, people who just need to sit inside out of the weather for a minute, parents who needed to get their young children out of the house, whatever. They are so useful! But they really only exist in the downtown business districts here and I feel like it would be nice to have at least one public food court in every neighborhood. Like there's no neighborhood where having a public indoor social space like that isn't useful.

#third places #social spaces

[lewis-mumfords-ghost]

#personal #urban planning #urbanism #third places #politics #localism

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

Idk if this is like, political or social justice or not. But it is important to note in the decline of society's mental health. So I'm going to count it.

(Will reblog anyone that provides captions)

-fae

#mental health #society #third place #third places

[mysticdragon3md3]

Nowhere to Go: The Loss of Third Places by  Elliot Sang

#youtube #third place #third places #video essays #teens #teenagers #kids #children #youth #depression #social media #analysis #realitystuff

[matthewmoorwood]

Foaming at the mouth rn because all I want to do is have a nice fucking walkable city with actually functioning public transportation so that me and my boyfriend can actually see each other more than once a week because it is genuinely too fucking expensive between either of us driving to each others places, and having to deal with housemates OR us going out somewhere and then paying like 60 bucks so that we can just exist with each other.

we live LESS than one hour away from each other but because of the suburban hellscape of our city there's no where for us to actually meet up because even if we just used public transportation half the time the busses don't show up because the goverment refuses to pay bus drivers a living wage like broo.

I WANT to go on the busses. I WANT to go on the trains. Me and my boyfriend are autistic we love that shit. but nooo

This isn't even mentioning that it's election year for my country and so many boot deepthroaters are actively siding AGAINST more funding for public transit.

I WANT to be outside. I WANT to go do things instead of being gay on the internet but there are zero third spaces where us as a t4t mlm couple feel safe.

#bark bark bark #foaming at the mouth #third places #vent post #public transportation #walkable cities #I only feel peace when I'm walking through a dog park and we're both taking turns throwing the frisbee for the puppos. #being gay in the economy really is impossible huh

[lady-laureline]

Unrealistic Game Project, Update 1:

"In Search of the Third Place" is the working title, in reference to the sociological term (the first place is home, the second is work; the third place is for hanging out, decompressing). We're sorely lacking third places, especially ones that aren't centered around alcohol - it's a whole thing.

Long story short, the name of the game is looking for somewhere to belong. While open to all (silent protagonist, ripe for projection), the core perspective is going to be one that is neurodiverse, as that is the only one I know. A lot of challenges will stem from communication issues, sensory fatigue, iykyk. Gonna try to do it justice.

#pixel game #update #third places #indie #isottp