Fostering community with third places

One of my favorite things about being an adult is being able to hang out with friends. Seriously, no supervision, no curfews, just spending time together. Only, where do we do that? Sure, we can gather at someone’s house, but it’s nice to get out sometimes. But where do we go? We’re college students, we don’t have a lot of money at our disposal.

Having a space that isn’t work or home is important, not only for our mental health, but for the health of our community.

These third places, a term created by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, are places outside of home and work for people to gather, and cost shouldn’t inhibit people from taking part. Theoretically, coffee shops and bars are good places, but there’s this unspoken rule that you have to buy something.

Parks and libraries are great places to gather. They’re completely free and, at least for libraries, the more they’re used, the more likely they are to get funding, which is always good.

Third places have been disappearing. As the cost of living rises, it becomes harder to find the time, energy, and money to go somewhere. Kids are getting yelled at for existing outside, and without access to transportation or money, the only place they can go is the internet.

The pandemic changed how we work, and now there are more work from home opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, I’m disabled, so having more opportunities to work is fantastic. However, that does eliminate a place to go that isn’t home. To keep each other safe, we had to become more distant. But now, we need to start reaching out to each other again.

I get it, introducing yourself, putting yourself out there is terrifying. That doesn’t make it bad. Start small. Go to Third Thursday, find the local shops. It’s so important for our community to be a community. It can’t be if we’re all isolated.

It’s harder to hate a group of people when you actually get to know them.

Kai Spahr is a Buhler sophomore studying journalism and the Opinion Page Editor.
X: @KaiSpahr

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