Let’s say you’re a teenager in the eighties, and you’re trying to plan what to do over the upcoming weekend. Should you go to the bowling alley and hit a few strikes? Perhaps a trip to the roller skating rink, or how about the arcade? You consider the mall, which is vibrant and full of bustling crowds. It’s almost overwhelming trying to make a decision between the variety of fun activities.
Teenagers and young adults in 2025 have the opposite issue. We are experiencing the rapid rise of the social media landscape and the decline of the physical one, with very few places to go for spending time with friends and the community. This occurrence has not only led to the decrease in locations, but a concerning lack of human connection.
Devika Rao called this phenomenon the disappearance of “third places.” A third place refers to a place for people to go regularly that is neither work (or school, for students) nor home. Third places are hangout spots that are vital for a person’s social health, a place they can go to talk amongst friends and other members of their local community. The decline of third places is inflicted by a variety of causes, including increasing prices, lack of walkability in many towns, the climbing prevalence of social media, and more.
A similar idea was shared by Eliza Relman, who claimed that we are experiencing a “loneliness epidemic,” and reported that the amount of time Americans spend with friends has dropped by a whopping 37% between 2014 and 2019. Relman emphasized the importance of how our surroundings affect our mental health, like how we need better public parks and other communal areas.
My mom got to experience her teenage years in the 80’s, and she told me some of the differences in communal spots and activities compared to now. She told me the main hangout spots where she lived were the mall and the pizza place.
“King’s Pizza would have about 100 kids at a time,” my mom said. She would go with a large group of friends, who would split the bill for one pizza and spend hours at the popular restaurant. She would often run into other kids at school when going out, because everybody had the same hangout locations.
Most young people today only have a few stores to hang out in, and the main place where you’ll run into other kids is the gas station, since there are not many other places to go. Improved parks, libraries, and other public places could benefit this cause. When I asked teenagers which spaces they wished we had in the area, some added that they would appreciate a better mall, containing a wider variety of stores or even a movie theater. Another person said that it would be cool if we had more museums, or a bowling alley like the one that used to be here.
My mom also described the diners, which she enjoyed going to as well. What stuck out to me the most, however, were the prices she mentioned. She would go in with a couple dollars and be able to purchase a drink and a meal, some of which were less than a dollar – a price that sounds bizarre to Gen Z ears. Going out to eat in 2025 guarantees spending a pretty solid sum of money, which discourages kids from coming. It is undeniable that the massively inflated prices are partially responsible for why teenagers are getting out of the house less often. Attempting to go shopping without at least $30 is a lost cause, and a coffee that would have cost a dollar or less 40 years ago can now get up to as much as $6.
Likely the most impactful cause of this social disconnection, social media and online messaging have been increasing rapidly since the invention of the cell phone. Many people are replacing in-person quality time with texting and video calls, or choosing to stay home on social media rather than going out. Though things like music streaming apps and streaming services for TV offer a great variety of music, shows, and movies, they also create a vast division in media intake compared to when everybody had the same few channels to watch.
Despite being a large reason why less young people are going out together, cell phones can be used to build community too. Last year, many young adults in New York City used social media to call community meetings, rounding up large numbers of people to celebrity lookalike concerts (notably the viral Timothee Chalamet lookalike contest, in which the celebrity made a surprise appearance at the event,) live performances (like the pop-up performance with Lorde) and other free social events.
Though the social stateof our generation may seem dull, community is not lost. There are many ways for young adults and teenagers to combat the increasing hyperindividualism in society. For one, we can make an effort to support local spots. There are still a few roller skating rinks and other places left that need people to attend in order to stay in business, so kids can possibly help revive these locations by continuing to support them, increasing the demand for and subsequently increasing the amount of public hangout places.
