Establishing and Testing a Quantitative Measure for Evolving Third-Place Characteristics

Abstract

Third places offer and promote social experiences beneficial for building interpersonal relationships. This study has two goals: 1) establish a scale that tests if an environment is characteristic of third place characteristics and 2) use this scale with four virtual environments (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter) to test the proficiency of third place characteristics as representative of virtual third places. A research-informed scale was created and tested with a sample of 354 participants. Confirmatory factor analysis verified a nine-factor solution, with each subscale reporting acceptable reliability (range: .89 to .96). This scale was tested with 140 participants to verify if certain social media qualified as third places. MANOVAs revealed that Facebook adheres most closely to the majority of third place characteristics, followed by Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter, respectively. The proposed scale can be used with other virtual environments to measure if they qualify as third places.