This article mainly talks about the definition and the importance of “Third places”. Oldenburg mentioned that our home is the “first” place in our lives, and our work places are the “second”, some other informal public gathering places are the “third”.
In the past, people can know each other more easily than nowadays, because they all lived together. With the development of the modern society, people became independent. They chose to live separately and tended to enjoy more private space. Communication and connection between individuals were less than before. So they went to “third places” to know each other and share some information.
I would like to cite my own example. I was born in a very small coastal city which is also a naval port. When I was a kid, I repeated very simple home-to-school-and-back-again shuttle life every day, having little interaction with public places and new people. Therefore, I don’t have much personal experience about “third places” before. After I went to college, I started to know more about “third places”. It did bring my friends and me more close to each other and at these places I got to make new friends more easily. In my leisure time, I could hang out with my friends at places such as restaurants and bars. From our conversations I was able to learn something that I wouldn’t know otherwise. I was excited about and eager for such discussions and my life was enriched a lot.
Maybe with the rapid development of the technology, some tangible “third places” are vanishing. Instead, a variety of new platforms such as forums and online groups are emerging. For the most people these new methods are feasible. However, they are unpractical for some minority groups without corresponding devices or knowledge. Personally speaking, I prefer the face-to-face communication with others in real life for the reason that online interaction only provides limited interactive modes, making it totally different from the conventional interaction. Having face-to-face communication enables people to sense the real emotions under different circumstances so that they can respond directly and promptly, which is usually unavailable when chatting online. The advantage of network gives us another option today, that we organize offline activities at “third places” and expose the related information online to inform people. For instance, I always seek online for some events that interest me and then participate in them. This combination not only makes it possible to spread information widely and efficiently, but also gives people direct communication facing each other.
After reading this article, I start thinking that we have the chance to find a new way for people to communicate and interact better under the tendency towards more developed society.
Do digital third places follow the same rules as physical? What happens when they become too specialized?
-Michael
I used to have similar home-school-then-back-home life cycle when I was young. Then I had an opportunity I could explore meeting new people and interacting with them when I grew up. Although I know many benefits of hanging out at the third places, nowadays I tend to stick to digital way more since it’s easier to access with any kind of computer and mobile devices. Now that I’m here in a new city, I’m looking forward to finding a third place for my own soon.