Introducing "The Fourth Place" & Why "Third Places" Have Fallen Short on Their Promise

1. You need shared contexts and shared interests. The reason why it’s difficult to make friends as an adult is because where there's shared context (seeing the same people over many months daily i.e. workplaces), there's a lack of shared interests. Where there's shared interest (hobby groups, bookclubs, etc), there's a lack of shared context. A place

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Instead of giving people meaning, a fourth place incites the conditions by which people find their own meaning, together and alone.

Fourth places, or communities for meaning-making, parallel the role that churches serve, but with no dogma and strings attached. As secularism becomes more predominant, church attendance dwindles, and meaning-making becomes privatized - places that engender collective sense-making of ourselves, the world, and how we fit in it - are more important t... See more