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May 13, 2008
Old and New Third Places
The Economist had a special feature on mobile technology, nomadic workers, and what both mean to urban society. One observation the writers made was that these mobile technologies often connect us to familiar people far away, but create a barrier toward connecting to strangers sitting beside us.
One example used was Third Places — coffee shops, downtown plazas, etc. where mobile workers sometimes hang out to work, rather than be stuck in an office. Many of these places used to foster communication. Historically, many revolutionary movements (whether political, philosophical or artistic) were forged in coffee houses throughout the world. People gathered, consumed too much caffeine, and generated new inspiring ideas. Today, the Economist authors and sources noted, people in third places often don’t talk to each other:
James Katz at Rutgers fears that cyber-nomads are “hollowing [third places] out”. It is becoming common place for a cafe to be full of people with headphones on, speaking to their mobile phones or laptops and hacking away at their keyboards, more engaged with their e-mail in box than with the people touching their elbows. These places are “physically inhabited but psychologically evacuated,” says Mr. Katz, which leaves people feeling “more isolated than they would be if the cafe were merely empty.”
Yesterday I was walking down a street in Vancouver known for its coffee houses. Some of them have been around for decades, run by Italian or Portuguese immigrant families. Others opened more recently. Almost all now offer wireless internet access. However, the older cafes had more people hanging out and talking. At my favorite stop, an Italian-run haunt that opened in the 1970s, I saw three people huddled around one laptop screen, discussing something. A couple each with a computer sat at another table and worked and chatted in a multi-tasking kind of way. Most chatting people did not have mobile devices with them. But they were interspersed around the cafe with the computer people. Most people stopped to look and smile when the Barrista starting flirting with my giggly 8 month old baby.
I took my coffee to go and continued on our walk. As I passed newer coffee places, I noticed what the Economist writers observed. Everyone inside seemed detached from the cafe, in their own worlds wearing headphones and faces pressed against a computer screen. Had I wandered into these places with a baby, I had the feeling that everyone would have stiffened up, worried that the baby would make noise and disturb their detachment from the world.
There are two types of Third Places, it seems. Ones that foster some sort of human interaction. And those that really function as office space, with people “virtually” closing the door with their headphones and computer screens.
Topics: third places, urban lifestyles |
May 14th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Very insightful.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Very true and very sad.
An excellent book was written about Third Places in the early 90’s - Ray Oldenburg’s “The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community”. I highly recommend it.
One of the stories he relates is about walking into a popular pub known for its good atmosphere, and seeing the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 14th bar stools taken - No one was talking to anyone else, including the bartender.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Am I the only one who has a problem with this article? Although I find cell phones annoying, there are people on the other end of that cell phone call, e-mail. I am communicating right now on this website. Interaction has not ceased.