With TV, we at least understood ourselves to be passive observers of the screen, but the interactive nature of the internet fostered the illusion that message boards, Discord servers, and Twitter feeds are digital “places” where we can in fact hang out. If nothing else, this is a trick that gets us to stick around longer. A better analogy for onlin

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cafes really should have a ‘newsletter of the week’ noticeboard because half the people in them are probably writing substacks

n Hannah Black’s essay for Artforum, “Go Outside,” she describes the possibilities illuminated by 2020’s riots, emphasizing a return to social life and public space. A riot, she writes, is “just something that can happen when a lot of people are outside in the same place.” She continues: “By providing new uses for public space—by uprooting street f

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A symbiotic relationship has been created between some brands and some cities, as in the case of Bulgari with Rome or Campari with Milan, celebrating a foundation or affinity cultivated over time. The city is a canvas, an inspiration, a mirror in which brands can reflect themselves, from which they can draw content and imagery and to which they can... See more

Already in the 1800s, brands were quick to seize the burgeoning urban landscapes as fertile grounds for reaching an expansive audience, a strategy later employed by brands such as Coca-Cola with their iconic billboards at the beginning of the 20th century.

Hand in hand with the evolution of humans and their quintessential living space, brands today ... See more

Julie Beck wrote about friendship and delineates three different types of friendship, active, dormant, and commemorative. Active friendships are the ones where you keep in touch regularly and can rely on them for emotional support. Dormant friendships are the ones where there's a shared history, so you haven't spoken a while, but you still consider

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Third places offer the most reliable forms of friendship. There's this Chinese proverb, "A humble friend in the same village is better than 16 influential brothers in the royal palace." Basically it's saying that one of the most important characteristics that friends can possess is availability. Third places make friendship easy, and when

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It is his centrally-heated, bright, combined nesting-cage and exercise run. The family-sized television replaces the crowded cinema, the bottle of beer from the off-license, the visit to the pub, the telly discussion, the pub argument. Furnishing and decorating the home have become subjects of absorbing interest to the nation, while public architec

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Ersatz third places can also be expensive, so think Soho House. So people who can't afford to hang out in one of them have to make do with under maintained, bare minimum public places. Oldenburg notes men drinking beers outside convenience stores in the parking lot because there's no seating actually inside the stores or teens gathering in a local

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