Bring back unsupervised third spaces that you don’t tell your parents about.

That’s where you build character.

And find porn.

I went to a Nerf tournament and humans vs. zombies game at a college campus a while back. The Nerf hobby has some interesting intersections. On the one hand, there are some legitimately competitive teams who drill and practice and have standardized uniforms and blasters and everything, so there's some organized sports types in there. On the other hand, it overlaps with the gun hobby, seeing as it's playing at being a gun fight, and it uses a lot of the same accessories. On the other other hand, it seems to be a very queer-friendly hobby; definitely a lot of flags being represented that weekend.

All of these disparate groups had a great time with each other. Huge range of demographics, all having good wholesome fun, making new friends, using their bodies and their minds, expressing themselves while also respecting the rules and structures of the game and the college campus. It was beautiful.

At the end of the weekend, the college Nerf club, which had been running these events on campus for years, came out and tearfully announced that this would be the last such event, because the college administration had announced there would be no further blaster events permitted on campus. Nobody got hurt that weekend, but presumably the administration was afraid of getting sued if someone did.

And just like that, a beautiful mechanism for bringing together lots of strangers and making them into friends and comrades disappeared in a whiff of imaginary liability for a theoretical accident that hadn't actually happened.

And we wonder why young people are addicted to social media and video games.

I would also really like to see a governmental permit office that distributes permit numbers on demand which can be used for age verification without revealing ANY information about the person verifying to ANY private entities.

I want to see this in a bunch of countries.

But where will I park my car and how will those places make money, that's America today

One time when I was biking home from middle school the office got suspicious that I was biking instead of riding home in a car, and they had to keep me in the office and call my parents

Like malls, parks, the skate park?

Which means what?

This is a pet peeve of mine. Well, more than a peeve.

When I grew up I spent significant time in youth centers, made social connections, formed my music taste and my first band. All away from my parents.

These do not exist anymore around where I live. So where do kids hang out these days? In the mall. It's so fucked up, people glance at them as if they were shop mannequins. And they take the pose, with the chewing gum and the phone. That's no way to spend your free time.

PS: an interesting variation was a Sleeping Space - some folks had formed an association and rented some space for people to hang out, literally: lots of cushions and mattresses, very quiet. It was amazing even though not many people actually slept there.

PPS: free entry and not being asked to leave is what they all had in common.

Me and my mates just hung out in the basement of the one with the least responsible parents.

Did all sorts of nasty shit like D&D, board games and binging movies.

I work at a museum and our director has started using the term third space to justify a finacialization of our non-profit. Be mindful of how the term is being used by capitalists to extract more resources.

It won't matter when technology is designed to steal your attention at all times. Corporations help cause this situation by selling products that addict everyone and they're getting damned good at it. How long did it take for social media and entertainment through phones to occupy everyone's day? People spend hours a day not their phones, time that was available for socializing even 15 years ago. You can bring 3rd places back it it's all competing with other attentions grabbers made by billion dollar industries.

I don't want to fix anyone's social media addiction. I want to bitch about kids on social media and feel like a genius

Just, giving them a future to believe in might help too.

What third space did we used to have as kids that we no longer have?