{"id":1279,"date":"2024-02-18T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T22:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2026-09-30T14:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:57:16","slug":"vr-as-a-third-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2024\/02\/18\/vr-as-a-third-place\/","title":{"rendered":"VR as a Third Place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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VR as a Third Place<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Shanna Finnigan<\/strong>\n \n February 18, 2024<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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The concept of the Third Place, popularized by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, refers to spaces beyond the home (first place) and the workplace (second place) where people can gather, socialize, and build a sense of community. Common third places include: community centers, the rock climbing gym, even your local coffee shop (like Central Perk in Friends- you get the idea). These are crucial for communities to develop a sense of belonging and connection- especially for young people. It\u2019s a place to be authentically yourself, to be creative and generate new ideas that may not come about in the mental constraints of the home or workplace. There is, unfortunately, a growing sentiment that third places are on the decline in recent years.<\/p>\n

Many people attribute this to digital mediums as a growing \u201creplacement\u201d for in-person connection. We are able to access so much information, and so many stimulating experiences, all from the comfort of our own homes. Online communities are an accessible safe haven for people to create friendships based on common interests. It has become an easier alternative to going out into the world and finding a third place that you can go to again and again. VR has the potential to redefine this concept. It is the perfect marriage of face to face interaction and digital worlds. The future of human connection is heavily intertwined with digital spaces- we\u2019re already seeing it with social media, where users can express themselves and foster a sense of community outside of the \u201chome\u201d and \u201cworkplace\u201d environment. Many believe that virtual spaces may serve as the next frontier for social interaction.<\/p>\n

As Forbes puts it, virtual reality can create a third place that offers \u201caccessibility, connectivity, [and] a space for to be vulnerable and authentic, and safe\u201d (Forbes<\/a>). Whereas real-world third places are constrained by time, physical space, and human resources, virtual spaces are available at any time, even when people are at their loneliest- late at night or early in the morning. For those that cannot easily access these traditional third places, whether it be due to location or to physical disabilities, etc, virtual reality is a place that anyone can come to when they are seeking to foster connections. And in a way, the metaverse creates a welcoming environment that enables users to really be their authentic selves. They can express themselves through the way that they style their avatar, the username they give themselves- they can present themselves to the world in a way that makes them feel confident.<\/p>\n

Critics may be fast to deem connections made through virtual reality as \u201cfake\u201d. However, though the worlds and avatars in VR may be virtual, the connections are anything but. They are more real than ever. To our brains, virtual reality exists between the physical and digital worlds. The way we process our anonymity, and in turn, how we perceive the way we come across to others, is somewhere in between. An editor for Wired, Peter Rubin, puts it best: \u201c20 or 30 years ago, we thought of the internet as a thing that would help people come out of their shells and find communities\u2026 those benefits are amplified in VR. Some of that is because virtual reality finds the middle ground between the absolute anonymity that people have on the internet and the kind of slow road to disclosure and intimacy that we have in real life\u201d (Knowledge at Wharton<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":1292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-past-editor-blogs","category-virtuality-and-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVR as a Third Place<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2024\/02\/18\/vr-as-a-third-place\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VR as a Third Place - 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