When Stars Misguide Us

Is social media our 3rd place?

Is There Anywhere Else To Go?

After going to the trails, parks, and nature, where else do we go? What are the other options? The mall, shopping plazas, or more outdoor activities?

I enjoy doing all these things with my family, but what I enjoy the most is meeting, watching, and being around people.

Where are the places (I live in a suburban city in the USA) where one can sit outside among cozy architecture and enjoy the comfort of strangers living their lives and socializing?

When I see European cities or movies with old American cities it fills my soul with wonder.

Me and my family are very social, and I tend to start conversations with strangers all of the time. I also smile and say hi to everyone I make eye contact with, and the truth is every positive human interaction makes me feel more enthusiastic and energized about life.

We are social beings, and I find that in our modern lives, we get trapped in a cycle of doing errands. If we aren’t doing errands we are working, and then we rush home and are alone in our suburbia.

I want to be where there are interesting styles of architecture new buildings among old buildings, and mixed in these buildings there is food, coffee shops, libraries, housing, etc.

I know it sounds like I am describing a city because I am. Not a mega city like NYC or Chicago, but a small city that unites all the suburban neighborhoods.

I am sure this concept is somewhere out there in the USA, but I honestly don’t know any. If you know any city that has this kind of concept please comment on what they are because it would be greatly appreciated.

“As Ray states in The Great Good Place, the nature of a third place is one in which the presence of a “regular” is always welcome, although never required. Membership is a simple, fluid process of frequent social contact, renewed each time by choice of the people involved. Eventually, social bonds develop through a type of informal intimacy. The important aspect of these relationships is that they occur outside of any commitment and exist solely in the realm of basic human respect. I ascribe huge importance to this one point because it is this one valuable kernel that is slipping away from our isolated modern world. I think that we all miss its presence and this affects us all in very slight, painful ways.”
― Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the “Great Good Places” at the Heart of Our Communities

Social Media Is Not Our Cities

Humans love watching people, and modern urban planning in America, they do not design a place for us to all gather and watch one another. There is no place where we can hang around for free and where it is safe for all ages.

We lost the exploration of life where you walk around and explore your town and meet new people.

It is interesting to me that what has replaced us watching people is social media. Besides watching people in a healthy way like being outdoors and looking at one another in their eyes and seeing their soul in real life we now are online.

We swipe and click to see other people talk, walk, and live. When in our entire human history we were always around each other watching what one another does in real time.

Modern American Society has now trapped us in our homes, cars, and workplaces with nowhere for us to go explore except nature trails, plazas, and restaurants. We need a 3rd place (1st, and 2nd are home and work) for us to roam and meet new people freely and organically the way it has been done for centuries.

Questions:

Am I being dramatic? Are the majority of American cities built to keep us in our homes, cars, and workplaces or is this how life is supposed to be and I am overthinking it?

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