That third place

The stuff that shows up on the Intertubes over the weekend seems to address more social issues than technical ones. Political topics sometimes get stirred up by events in the nation and world and by the Sunday morning talk shows. Mostly, though, the articles, blog posts, and tweets tend to show how people are living their lives.
One post, Why Teens Don't And Won't Tweet, gave a view about social networking that's lost in the breathless rush to the Next New Thing. Twitter isn't useful to teens because teens, for the most part, want to hang out with their friends. Facebook gives them that. Twitter is something else. It can be a way to hang out with your friends, but that's not really what it's designed to do best. Twitter is about broadcasting to the world, giving everyone a chance to hear what you can say in 140 characters or less. Again, teens generally don't want to talk at everyone, even if it sometimes seems like that. They want to talk with their friends, hear their friends, trade inside jokes, and experiment.
Facebook becomes that important "third place" in their lives, a place that while often overlapping with home and school, is something essentially different, something close. Nearly 30 years ago, Ramon Oldenburg and Dennis Brissett authored a key analysis of American culture titled The third place. In it, Oldenburg and Brissett describe an America that is increasingly time-bound. "Most individuals, except in unusual situations, seem able to estimate the time of day within 15 or 20 minutes when they are at home or at work," they write. In the third places, time easily gets away from you.
The third places can get wild as people step out of their typical roles and often play against them. 

Often third place participation is loud and boisterous. It is reassuring to observe that the average person, given the opportunity to let off steam, rarely will be vulgar, obnoxious, or spiteful in the presence of his companions.

Yes, people can appear to behave badly, but it's relatively rare for people to cross that line into bullying. (If abusive behavior was the norm or even something frequent, Facebook wouldn't have a half billion users.)
The authors wax wistful, often idealizing the purpose and performance of these third places, but they're onto something.

Third places provide enabling, not escapist, experiences for their inhabitants.They are a forum for "play" in a society interfused with a stubborn commitment to work and purposiveness. Association in third places envelopes individuals in a temporary world within their ordinary worlds.