# What is your "Third Place"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 6, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472 "2019-12-06T16:30:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/1 "2019-12-06T16:30:00Z")
I am reading book that discusses the concept of a Third Place, where your First Place is home and your Second Place is work, it is a place you go with the following criteria: It is open to the public. It has a relaxed and mostly casual atmosphere that facilitates conversation. You can interact with people you don’t know. Bars, Taverns and Coffee shops are examples of common Third Places. You can make the argument (and indeed the book I am reading does) that Social Media or boards like this one are also Third Places. So, what is your Third Place? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/2 "2019-12-06T16:33:16Z")
Chairlift at Heavenly Valley. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/3 "2019-12-06T16:42:06Z")
Yeah, there is a bar that fits the third place description. > [@](#): > > Sometimes you want to go > Where everybody knows your name > And they’re always glad you came > You want to be where you can see > The troubles are all the same > You want to be where everybody knows your name ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/4 "2019-12-06T16:50:55Z")
My pottery studio. ---
**Author:** ![HotDogWater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/35a633/32.png) [@HotDogWater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HotDogWater)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/5 "2019-12-06T17:18:23Z")
My local rugby club. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/6 "2019-12-06T17:30:21Z")
I was having trouble coming up with something, and then I realized: - It is open to the public. - It has a relaxed and mostly casual atmosphere that facilitates conversation. - You can interact with people you don’t know. That literally sounds like Hell to me. Or maybe the grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/7 "2019-12-06T17:47:47Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > I was having trouble coming up with something, and then I realized: > > - It is open to the public. > - It has a relaxed and mostly casual atmosphere that facilitates conversation. > - You can interact with people you don’t know. > That literally sounds like Hell to me. > > Or maybe the grocery store. Or the Straight Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/8 "2019-12-06T17:51:43Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > I was having trouble coming up with something, and then I realized: > > - It is open to the public. > - It has a relaxed and mostly casual atmosphere that facilitates conversation. > - You can interact with people you don’t know. > That literally sounds like Hell to me. This. Seriously. Interact with people I don’t know? In meatspace? Uh, no thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/9 "2019-12-06T17:53:37Z")
Yeah, I don’t interact with people I do know much less don’t know. Except if I’m really wasted. The closest I can come up with is Manager’s Reception (free drinks hour) at Embassy Suites which has a good enough combo of atmosphere and drunkenness where I can talk to people I don’t know, but I’ve only experienced it a dozen or two times, so I can’t really call it _my_ place. If they mean my _happy_ place, I’d say it’s the balcony of the Contemporary Resort at Disney World, where I can sip my tea in peace in a beautiful futuristic setting while I watch the monorails go by. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/10 "2019-12-06T18:07:26Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > It is open to the public. > It has a relaxed and mostly casual atmosphere that facilitates conversation. > You can interact with people you don’t know. > … > boards like this one are also Third Places. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > the Straight Dope. Yep. A place I frequent that fits the OP’s description? You’re looking at it. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/11 "2019-12-06T18:19:57Z")
If on-line counts, then definitely either here or [Royals Review](http://www.royalsreview.com), not sure which one is my “primary” these days. In real-time, probably my synagogue is the place I’d describe as such. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/12 "2019-12-06T18:26:47Z")
Denver. About 100 miles east of me. I go down about every 3 weeks or so to see my mother and then hang out with my cousins. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/13 "2019-12-06T18:33:33Z")
A local nature trail next to a river. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/14 "2019-12-06T18:38:14Z")
The gym. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/15 "2019-12-06T18:40:24Z")
I can’t think of any place that I go to interact with people I don’t know. I do not go to bars. If I’m not at home or work I’m usually walking the dogs in the woods somewhere. Luckily I don’t see a lot of strangers there! But that would be my third happy place. Somewhere on a trail in the woods, or near a creek or lake - either just me and the dogs or with my husband, a sister or a friend. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/16 "2019-12-06T19:06:03Z")
My local Starbucks, but I rarely if ever talk to anybody there to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/17 "2019-12-06T19:18:53Z")
This place fits the best, I think. The other board I’m on regularly is very small and we’ve all known each other (online, anyway) for close on 20 years. I wouldn’t call them strangers even though I haven’t most of them IRL. I work retail, there is no way in hell I’m going to hang out in a public space to chat with strangers on my own time for the fum of it. I do actually kind of like being alone in a ‘crowd’ (like a coffee shop or a restaurant), but I still want to be ~left~ alone. I don’t want interaction, I just like to be a nonentity on the fringes and maybe do some subtle people-watching. On second thought, I do have one place, though it’s more an activity than a single place. I volunteer a fair amount at horse shows (eventing, for the horse-y folk. I like to jump judge and do Finish timing on cross-country). In that regard I am interacting with strangers, mostly on a radio and a bit of face-to-face. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/18 "2019-12-06T19:18:59Z")
It’s not really a fixed place _per se_, but a couple of running stores in my town host group runs. Definitely casual, since it’s hard to be stuffy wearing 3” shorts and a sweat-soaked singlet, and it’s very easy to strike up a conversation: “What are your favorite shoes?” and “So, training for a race?” are pretty sure-fire opening lines. I have lost count of the people I’ve met and chatted with during the course of a run, even in a race. Runners like to talk about our sport. _Ad nauseam_, according to my wife. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/19 "2019-12-06T19:35:53Z")
FWIW You don’t _have_ to interact with people you don’t know, just that there is an opportunity to do so. And yeah I think this board is a valid answer. That was actually the reason the book (“Because Internet” in case someone is curious) brought up that concept. To say that places on the internet have essentially become the “Third Place” for many (most?) people. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472/20 "2019-12-06T19:58:54Z")
Given that I don’t really consider online interactions to be “meeting people”, I don’t go to any Third Places. The stores and eateries I go to don’t really have atmospheres that facilitate conversation with strangers. I mean, it can happen, but it _doesn’t_ happen. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-third-place/844472.md?page=2)