a mini-post
Recently I spent the better part of an afternoon chatting with an urban sociologist about third places: parks, libraries, pubs, dog parks, gyms, bookstores, coffee shops, churches - those social places separate from home (the first place) and work or school (the second place). She's particularly interested in what they meant during the pandemic, how they're changing, and how why young people see them differently.
A few notes from the chat. There isn't any order or story, just think of them more as points to think about as you look at your own experience.
Third place visits have traditionally had a impact on physical and mental health, although it's difficult to tease out specifics. Researchers have pointed out they can "level" differences like ethnicity, class, religion and age. Dogs parks and some types of sporting events are used as gold standards for mixing people. (I can personally recommend a beagle) Churches do a great job within a religion, but often raise barriers to outsiders. Suburban parks that encourage physical activity tend to be frequented by young well-to-do white people, while parks with benches and picnic tables cater to families and ethnic minorities.
Many small businesses are third places and many went out of business during the pandemic. They're coming back and have become particularly important to those who saw their first and second places collapse into a single place (work from home). She suggested businesses should encourage work from home employees to find third places they enjoy given the mental and physical health benefits. She also loves that Washington DC has a tax on vacant retail space. Areas are more inviting and offer richer third space potential when there are minimal vacancies.
Researchers sometimes tease out how introverts and extraverts fit into all of this. Both benefit from third places, although the types of places differ. She noted something fascinating. It appears the depth of interaction times the number of interactions may be roughly constant across these personality types. I'm skeptical of statements like that as studying anything as complex as human relationships is tricky, but it's interesting and may have an impact on business and public space design.
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