Longing for third places

I just encountered this concept of the “third place.”

According to Ray Oldenburg, who coined the term, a third place is “a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.”

It’s different from your home (first place) or your work (second place). Third places encourage conversation and socialization. A third place can be a bar, a coffee shop, a sari-sari store, or a park. While they may seem perfect for extroverts, they are places for introverts, too, even if they just read or sit quietly with other people around.

It’s just too bad that social media seems to have replaced many of these physical third places, and the online conversation has become mostly inane and toxic.

This article by Katherine Peinhardt talks about why third places matter: https://www.pps.org/article/what-is-a-third-place-beyond-the-buzzword-to-true-social-connection

Do you have a third place you visit often?