death of 3rd place

I see this being a headline for Youtube and clickbait, made by people younger than me. People who have likely been in more cliquey "friend groups" than most, yet who want to act they never had a chance. So, i'm gonna clear the air on how it really fucking is, from the perspective of someone who wasn't some spoiled "upper middle class" rich acting ****.

As a teenager I'd try to go to the dead mall near me to hangout and hopefully meet people. very few people were ever there. old people shopping. families with kids. some loser who was like well into his 20s who would try to hit on girls working places, who even then i thought was a creep. Then very very very veryyyyyyyy rarely would i see people my age, much less actually hanging out and doing what i was.

This was about a decade before Covid. At a point where it wasn't rare or a rich kid thing anymore to have a phone. Smartphones had just become affordable enough for most people to be able to have. So, even then going places like I did wasn't the easiest to meet people. Smartphones didn't ruin society like people born after me think.

And when it came to the other few people who were hanging out at the mall. I didn't feel comfortable around most of them. Just very spiratic and fake. Like the kind of kids you see acting retarded while in line at the theme park. They probably all fucked up their lives in early adulthood, and are paying the piper for it. And going back to my parent's days, from what i heard, the ones even then who'd be out and about begging anyone to go out with them, were not exactly the most calibur of people. AKA trash.

And now let me think about my random encounters. I've been at places and I've been hit on, and I've seen others trying to hit on people. My take from it is that it's 99.999999% of the time creepy weirdos who are very offputting. It isn't like a movie where you can actually do this shit in real life.

And groups. Groups are mostly cliques that make you feel like you want to die. I was in one in my early 20s, with a bunch of losers who were around my parent's age. I hated it. Every bit of it. I'd leave feeling horrible and would have headaches every time. I just did it because there was nothing else. Gyms are full of old people, and motherfuckers around my age wearing camel toe shit, wanting Instagram followers, who act snobby around everyone. Or, little "friend groups" of assholes.

I went to a rock climbing gym several times over the years. The staff ignore you if you aren't an elite asskisser, the regulars are mostly snobs, this one guy who tried to talk my head off once was very fake and loved humblebragging about all of the places he had gone to. So, no real connection or room for friends at a place like that, and I felt like shit so much so my last time going that i decided I wouldn't be back.

So, as far as I can see this whole idea of the "3rd place" being where you would have formerly met the love of your life, is just bullshit propaganda. My experiences from shit I've seen first hand is that, young or old, it's pretty much only trash who go and get into someone's face and try to beg them to go out with them.

I'd be better off getting onto a dating app and being met with those desperate immediate first messages from someone whose like "OMG A PERSON LIKED MY PAGE" but that's a different story for a different time.

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anonymous Relationships May 27, 2025 at 5:56 pm 0 0