Or what if the average consumer wants to live a different life than what you want? I long for the memories of my childhood where I spent it outside for hours on end or when I had the opportunity to use the phone line to use the internet but I am not fully convinced what people what are third spaces. It’s hard to answer and I think partially for better or worse why markets are often a useful tool to o help figure it out. Never perfect but maybe better than the alternatives.

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multjoy 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What people generally want is time, and then if you have time you obviously need to spend it somewhere. If not work or home, then literally a third space.

>t’s hard to answer and I think partially for better or worse why markets are often a useful tool to o help figure it out

The point of the article is that the markets are blind to this sort of social good.

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infecto 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I am not convinced any other entity can do “social good” on average better than some form of a market. The simpler explanation here is that board games are still a niche hobby and not a lot of folks play them to require a third space. And these third spaces generally still exist but they require some organization.

The point of my comment is I don’t agree with the article.

Back to what I said. Kids don’t even play outside anymore and I don’t think it’s because the market took away third spaces and is a much more complicated problem.

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eszed an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> Kids don’t even play outside anymore and I don’t think it’s because the market took away third spaces

I agree with this, but I think it reinforces GP's point that what's missing is time: slack in the day. I grew up playing outside with all the neighborhood kids, and the critical enabler was that there were always adults around during the after-school hours. Not actively hanging out with us, or even closely supervising, but around. Some of them (mine, but only for a few years), were stay-at-home mothers, but by no means all. One family had a dad who got home early from work. Another kid we couldn't play at their house certain days, but we could others, because their parents had variable schedules.

There were also more kids around, because families back then had more kids than they do nowadays. I think that's also (not entirely, but to a significant degree) a consequence of adults having less time - across their life-cycles, and in their days - that isn't devoted to work.

No ones' parents did gig-work, or worked two jobs. Most parents were 9-5, or maybe 8-4 (or I don't know: I was a kid, and not paying attention to things like that), but no one went to "after school care", because there were always adults around after school got out.

Hell, I think the need for third-places (for kids) mentioned in the article is a down-stream effect of the increased time pressures on adults' lives - as is the disappearance of third-places for adults.

	▲	infecto an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t know if I can come to that conclusion. Certainly there some grain of a truth there but even when the parents are home kids are not out exploring. At least in America there is an obsession for experience maxing with kids. I don’t know if it’s a time problem or a shift in attitudes.

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frameset an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The simpler explanation here is that board games are still a niche hobby

The article says "games", which I took to be more likely to be video games. These are teenagers after all. And if they're safe and goofing around gaming in a youth club, they're less likely to be doing antisocial behaviour on the street.

	▲	infecto 43 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Ok video games then. I am not sure video gaming in person in a group setting is popular with modern youth. Same outcome to me.

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multjoy 42 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Why do you think these are board games? The article is describing a youth club, for which there is no market as there is no profit to be made from it.

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treis an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

We have more time than ever. Adults just choose to use it arguing on the Internet instead of building a free 3rd space for teens.

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tehwebguy 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

All of those things you long for have been nuked by the economy too.

	▲	infecto 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Source?

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hiddencost 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

IDK if you're familiar with Church, but that's the most heavily used third space. And we grant it tax exempt status which it abuses to push bad laws.

	▲	infecto 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes I am well aware of churches and their tax exempt status and generally don’t agree with it. So I will ask what’s your punchline to my opinion? My point is I am not convinced this is a pure market problem so much as the average consumer no longer wants it. There are still plenty of third spaces to organize events like game nights though not dedicated and that includes community centers or other private entity community centers like churches or clubs. I think the problem is less the market stripped away the third space and more that for better or worse the demand does not exist.