Third Places, Stanley Cup Mania, and the Epidemic of Loneliness

the decline of third places means there are fewer places to just hang out and bump into each other. Other economic and social factors have surely contributed to this change, but I suspect that it’s largely due to the new third place—the one in the palm of our hands. We hang out online, which means we don’t hang out at all.

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

The definition of a third place has always been broad. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term in 1989 in his book The Great Good Place. At its core, a third place is anywhere outside of the home or work where people can socialize in public, and where the nebulous concept of community is formed. They are places that don’t require an appointment, ... See more

There are still plenty of great third places where you can hang out comfortably as long as you want, of course—but they increasingly feel like luxury goods, carrying an expectation of higher spending or restricting access outright (there are also true public spaces like parks and libraries, which are a separate category altogether). When a single c... See more