Disappearing Third Places: A Public Health Concern

Shared spaces can combat the US loneliness epidemic, but experts say we need more of them.

By Talia Gordon Wexler

My grandmother was never a sociable and lively person, but after my grandfather died 12 years ago, she withdrew into a life of near silence. Far from the rest of her family, she spoke only to her neighbor and food delivery drivers. Incapable of driving a car, she was confined to her house, limiting both her social activity and her movement. This past year, unable to live a healthy life alone at 80, she moved in with my parents.

Something unexpected happened. My parents nudged her into attending synagogue events, convinced her to try a Zumba class, and introduced her to the librarian who runs senior trivia nights. Within months, she was laughing, moving, and reconnecting.

Her surprising transformation was not just emotional; it reflected a growing trend in the United States. America faces an increasing loneliness epidemic, and healthcare professionals are searching for solutions. “Third places,” spaces that are neither work nor home, can be the answer to this increasing public health concern. These locations can combat the heightened mental health crisis.

The informal gathering spaces that revitalized my grandmother can be used as tools for rebuilding social connections nationwide.

The Rise of the Loneliness Crisis

“As social animals, we actually crave some kind of human connection,” said Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, a medical and psychological anthropologist and graduate faculty member within the Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University.

Ozawa-de Silva defines loneliness as “in satisfaction with human relationships, but also relationships with places and environments.”

Disconnection from society and others can have a significant impact on not just mental status but also physical well-being. Loneliness does not just affect feelings; it raises the risk of a decrease in intellectual and physical health, leading to premature mortality. Public health officials now believe that restoring access to third places may be the most effective strategy for reducing the loneliness epidemic.

In 2020, the United States underwent a national shutdown. To encourage social distancing,  the COVID pandemic forced the closing not only of schools and workplaces but also community centers, cafes, and even outdoor gathering spaces. During this quarantine period, many individuals, isolated from society, experienced an increased feeling of loneliness. According to the 2021 Census Bureau’s Time Use Survey, Americans were already spending less time with others before the start of the pandemic. The nationwide shutdown only metastasized the number of Americans who felt alone. Post-pandemic in 2024, 17 percent of Americans claimed to have zero friends.

In 2023, the United States Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, wrote an advisory titled Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, which warned society to draw attention to the national rise of loneliness. Murthy’s public statement acknowledges that prior to COVID-19, about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. With the pandemic, workplaces, education systems, and daily life shifted to prioritizing online spaces for community and connection. While social networking platforms have created communities for some, technology has been linked in far-ranging ways to a loneliness epidemic. In Murthy’s warning, the detachment from others and their overall health are dependent on each other.

Loneliness “harms both individual and societal health,” Murthy wrote. “It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”

Third Places Improve Overall Health

In the book The Anatomy of Loneliness: Suicide, Social Connection, and the Search for Relational Meaning in Contemporary Japan, Ozawa-de Silva claims that chronic loneliness is not just shaped by an individual’s psychological state, but an absence of lifestyle factors such as belonging, rituals, and shared space with others. Her work focuses on individuals in Japan and the growing hyper-individualized living that society’s ideals have imposed on residents. But Ozawa-de Silva’s research provides a larger picture of the growing concerns in the United States; when there is a lack of third places, individuals are seen to lose the social framework that supports one’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Losing communal spaces, individuals can begin to feel disconnected from others and their interests.

“The third place is a very important space for addressing this social isolation,” Ozawa-de Silva said.

Since the pandemic, places for gathering, specifically local businesses such as bakeries and independent bookstores, have never reopened. Unable to create profit, owners had no choice but to close their doors and leave many buildings with empty windows. Researchers who are now studying the rise in feelings of isolation warned that one overlooked driver of the loneliness epidemic is the quiet disappearance of the everyday places where people once naturally gathered.

A 2019 study published in Health and Place argues that these spaces play a critical role in community well-being, strengthening social support, informal networks, and a sense of belonging. But across the United States, many third places due to the aftermath of COVID-19 have been closing or shrinking, leaving fewer moments and opportunities for spontaneous connection.

The study concludes that the loss of third spaces may have major public health consequences, such as an increase in obesity and depression due to the inactivity of the individual. As towns and cities have started to see the rise of loneliness in the increase in mental health needs, the question of third spaces as a possible solution has arisen. The reopening and reconstruction of such places can be the answer to the rising rates of loneliness.

The importance of these everyday gathering spaces for individuals like my grandmother is more than anecdotal. A 2025 study published in Urban Science suggests strong evidence that spaces like shared community environments measurably shape health. Researchers of the study found that older adults who lived within easy reach of third places such as libraries, cafes, parks, community centers, and other informal social hubs reported higher levels of physical activity, stronger social networks, and better overall well-being.

These spaces do not just offer entertainment; they create opportunities for casual interaction and routine socialization. Adults in neighborhoods with inaccessibility to these third places reported significantly higher levels of isolation, loneliness, immobility, and overall poorer health indicators. The findings from this study serve as hard evidence that places that provide a place to sit, eat with others, and participate in activities can act as a buffer for the idea that inevitable loneliness comes with aging in the United States.

Third Places Aren’t Equally Accessible

“Third places function as a community-based health resource,” said Dr. Jennifer Kowalkowski, an Assistant Professor in the Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing at The Pennsylvania State University and corresponding author of a study published in Rural Society in March of 2025.

Her analysis of 1,135 rural working-age adults studied the relationship between third places and one’s mental health. The paper finds that individuals who regularly visited third place settings like cafes, parks, community centers, or other communal sites and socially engaged while there reported significantly better mental health status than those who did not.

The paper highlights the relationship between social interaction beyond the population one may think of, such as older adults or urban environments. The paper focuses on rural working-age populations, many of whom live far from traditional mental health services. This suggests that third places may represent an alternative way to access inexpensive, everyday social spaces that can help reduce loneliness, isolation, and poor mental health at a larger scale.

Some experts argue that these third spaces already exist in communities and institutions such as libraries, but are not being adequately utilized. Nancy Heaton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Foundation for Community Health in Connecticut, said, “the more community assets like libraries understand their influence and role, the more they improve the overall well-being in communities.”

Heaton’s organization helps local businesses develop third spaces that serve their communities, such as encouraging a concert stage to host outdoor community events and the implementation of behavioral health resources located near the local high school to make access easier and more encouraged. Heaton hopes to continue implementing accessible spaces to bring communities together and engage in social connection.

Third places across the United States are unequally distributed, specifically, in areas that can profit from them the most. Rural and poorer communities have fewer third spaces due to inaccessibility and limited resources. In these communities, the need for third places is even more key as these individuals already experience other barriers to health, such as food security and transportation inaccessibility.

The power of third places in rural areas is evident with the recent opening of a communal space in Hardwick, Vermont. The small countryside town transformed its abandoned general store into a social hub called The Yellow Barn. With the combined effort of community members, the space that was soon to become just another vacant structure was reconstructed to become a center for social activity. The space now houses a cafe, a communal workspace, and a host of weekly farmers’ markets. For many individuals, specifically older adults living in an isolated state such as Vermont, transportation and ways of socializing are difficult. The Yellow Barn is just one example of the impact a central location can make on a community.

Everyone Benefits from Third Places

Loneliness does not just affect older individuals; with the rise of social media and post-pandemic life, isolation is an issue for all ages. For students, third places play a significant role in the sense of belonging. In February of 2024,the Emory Wheel published an article on the lack of third spaces in Emory’s community. The article describes the absence of communal space where students can socialize, outside of dorms or classrooms. In addition, the student author examines that without third spaces close to campus, Emory struggles to have school spirit, affecting students’ overall health and well-being.

Experts in the field say that not enough awareness exists of the need for these spaces. Public health officials hope for better policy, funding, and governmental support for the growing concern about loneliness and the health impacts it can have. In 2025, the World Health Organization released its first global framework on social connection. WHO emphasizes the need for society to acknowledge that “social infrastructure,” such as community centers and parks, should be considered a public health intervention rather than a desirable resource.

COVID-19 and the rise of online platforms ultimately changed our way of living, but people must return to in-person connections, as they are the drivers for their overall health outcomes.

Through my grandmother, I have watched the change that simple interactions and third spaces can have on one’s mental, physical, and social health. Third places act as sites for the promotion of one’s health, combating the loneliness epidemic that is spreading nationwide.