Reddit mentions of The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community

> over think things and think once I've reached a certain age I'm no longer allowed to go out and have fun anymore.

Take this thought out into the backyard, strap 14 lbs of TNT to it, light the fuse, and take safe cover. You should be able to be 50 or 70 and do whatever you want as long as you are not hurting other people. Bars are a "third place" that have served an important social function for people for hundreds of years. In UK, they are called pubs and you can see oldsters there.

You might be interested in what Ray Oldenburg has to say. He is a sociologist who has a lot of negative things to say about suburbia. If you ditch your commute, not only will you be healthier, Oldenburg will bet that you are happier too.

Jos ei tykkää Voxista niin tässä kirjassa, joka oli videon lähteenäkin, on samoja pointteja

> I'll add I'm also single and without dependents

Given that and your location, if you're also a college student, you're basically at the absolute peak of American sociability.

> I'm not so sure about measurements of very personal relationships throughout history.

You could be right. I've read a study or two that show that circles of friendship are shrinking, and books like Bowling Alone and The Great Good Place discuss the issue, but it could just be wrapped up nostalgia in disguise.

> most Americans are urbanized.

That's true and will, I think, ultimately be good news but keep in mind that "urban" here is a pretty broad term that includes the sparse suburbia a lot of Americans live in.

> Besides turning back the clock, do you think that urbanization will continue to worsen or improve our social opportunities

Everything seems to swing back and forth. Since the industrial revolution, we've swung towards depersonalization to some degree. As we move towards an information economy I think we have the opportunity to swing back some.

> or is that question too broad/undetermined/dauntingly huge to broach?

I don't think any question is too huge to broach, you just need to approach it with similarly huge solutions. In this case, honestly, I think the problem might be solved for us. If the energy crisis gets worse, people will start clustering back together for practical reasons, and I think that will lead to more human contact.

Things like new urbanism are positive signs too, but I don't know if it's a fad that will pass. (At the very least, the real estate bubble popping has put a hurt on it. Orlando is full of empty condos right now.)

A bad economy is actually good news for this too: a new TV and a big house in the suburbs is pretty expensive compared to a smaller home and having friends over for Monopoly.

The Great Good Place was a great read on the topic. The first place I remember reading about the Third Place and was fascinated by the topic.

I'll have to pick up Suburban Nation, as it seems to be an interesting take on the subject.