The Fuss Over Third Places Is Valid

Too many buzzwords and concepts are so hard to define; instead, third places are easy to define, which gives us a promising start. They are, according to Ray Oldenburg (The Great Good Place, 1989), the spaces where we choose to spend our time when we are not at home or work/school.

It’s a human tendency to create such places, and it’s been so since we started gathering in larger groups. British coffee houses, Chinese imperial teahouses, Greek agoras, as well as travelling paths we used as gathering spots, are just some historical examples of such places.

Every community, wherever in the world, has some of the same needs; often these are…

“…the means for people to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably.” — Oldenburg

Unfortunately, third places are slowlydisappearing from people’s daily routines, despite still being necessary for our psychosocial well-being. In cities like Melbourne, where I live, most places are too far away (especially in suburbia) to reach without a car or well-connected, fast public transport, or, most often, are too expensive.

While in some countries meeting at a coffee shop could easily classify as a third place (I often think of the 1 euro for coffee in Italy vs 5 dollars in Australia, for example), in others it comes with a ticket too high for some people to consider it an I-will-spend-my-whole-day-off-there kind of place.

Then there is the fact that we are becoming increasingly individualistic in our conceptualisation of leisure time.

The internet and social media don’t help the case, as it is much easier to spend two hours scrolling Instagram, zapping through live TV channels, or spending the same amount of time trying to find a good movie on Netflix than it is to gather a group of friends to go play volleyball at your local leisure centre or hope to strike up a conversation with strangers, which take much more social courage than leaving a comment online.

But, thankfully, third places still exist. We just need to use them more.

Public libraries are some of my favourites, but there are also parks, free museums, and a nice wall at the periphery between your town and the countryside that makes for a very good pretend goal for your free-for-all football practice. Literally, it only takes vision and creativity sometimes: so many places may become a third place if they are accessible and low cost.

The best part is that while third places are spots where you can hang out with strangers and friends alike, they can also be places where you spend your time in solitude.

Socialising is important, but so can finding solace in places that are neither home (first place) nor work (second place), even more so nowadays, when for many of us, first and second place are both our desks in our bedrooms, which, in my humble opinion, are great for flexibility but not so great for sociability and community.

I love my alone time at home with my pets. I love it even more since I started working at an entertainment centre. The need to not hang out with kids, teenagers, and frustrated adults is real. But my third place is my second happy place, and I need it.

It goes a bit like this.

Some days I go to the library and bring my computer and a book (five times out of ten, the books come from there anyway) and spend two to three hours in a comfy corner reading and writing. Then, I'll move upstairs.

My ping pong buddies are there. Our ages vary from our 30s to late 70s, and our backgrounds are 90% Chinese and 10% other (I'm an Australian with Italian heritage). We value our time with each other. We learn and share table tennis news; we have break times where we scream at those still playing; and we slowly share some parts of our lives.

I cherish the alone days and those spent in the company of others, but surely my life would be a tad sadder without my public library.

If this type of interaction seems nostalgic to you, I believe it doesn't have to be; in fact, we can make it our "daily" life. The very young and the very old especially suffer more than anyone, on average, from loneliness. If we keep third places alive, I reckon we can keep our community alive too, and more beautiful.

I am not that creative, but I bet you can think of so many places that could become third places, and perhaps first in our souls!