Ask HN: What is the future of “third places”?

1 pointslymerson2 comments

Third places would be any place other than work and home. Think like cafes, religious institutions, etc. It's a place where you don't have an identity/label tied to you. You just go there to socialize and be with people.

Is the future of third places online? If so, what are some companies making online third places?

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Modern society demands that such places be inclusive to all, which makes them comfortable for none. Third places are simply a dead concept incompatible with contemporary values.

That's maybe true for mainstream places, in particular online. If you look at all the nonsense about the metaverse for example, before it even existed people were coming out of the woodwork complaining about the possibility of virtual groping and other silly stuff. It would inevitably have become some boring sterile place that reflect a bunch of values no real person has

The same is apparently true in the real world for Disney properties (though I'm sure it's more played up than it actually is)

That just means that being an interesting third place is incompatible with being widely known.

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