Martinez 1

Pilar Martinez H.
Professor Santosh
English 113B
April 9, 2016
What Your Third Space Does to your Health.
(Web & Physical)
Throughout the day people experience all types of emotions like being tired, sleepy,
overwhelmed, happy, or even sad. These emotions could be caused by having a good or bad day
at work, school, or another place. Having a good day is always great, but when someone is
having a bad day well, thats a different story. So how or where do people get rid of the stress of
a bad day? According to Dr. Adam Fraser this is where The Third Space takes place. The third
space is somewhere where a person could reflect, rest, and reset. This usually does not happen at
work/school or at home. With that being said a persons third space could vary with it being a
physical place or even the web. Many people could argue that the web such as social media has
become peoples third space do to the fact that it is so easy to access and in some cases has
benefited peoples lives. Although peoples third space has become more technological, a
physical place could bring more positive outcomes, such as a healthier life, and better
communication skills.

As we all know being a physical person, like exercising, playing sports, running etc. can
be a lot of work and could take up a lot of time but it makes both your mental and physical health
much stronger. Studies have shown when a person is having some type of physical activity it can
reduce the chances of getting high blood pressure, type two diabetes, some cancers, thinning of
bones, heart disease, and strokes. By preventing all these types of deadly diseases it increases the
probability of a longer healthier life. Visiting or doing any type of physical activity also helps

Martinez 2

decrease the chances of depression. Well as learning new things about yourself and the best one
helps you sleep better! For example visiting a park could be the
perfect way of clearing your mind from any stress or anxiety
and even get a workout. Parks could be found almost
everywhere and there completely free. According to a Dr. Owen
from Kaiser Permanente parks could be a perfect place where
families could interact and get along. Reducing family issues and
creating a better environment for kids and their parents. With that
being said it makes both the childrens and the parents mental
health stronger and happier. Because parks are for everyone it
impacts everyones health for the better. Also people with easy access to parks can cause the
decrease of childhood obesity. Besides all the healthy benefits it gives people it also helps people
have money. In a 2011 study it was revealed that Seattles residents were able to save about 64
million dollars due to their everyday physical activities (Shoup 2011). All these are benefits on
how spend your time in a physical place can help you become a better person. But the way
people these days handle their free time like using social media is harming them as well.

Technology such as smartphones have increased drastically over the past decade making
social media easy to access. So when a person wants to get away and relax the easiest thing to do
it pick up the phone and go on social media. It might be the easiest thing to do but in a long run it
could harm your mental and your physical health. According to Andrew Perrin nearly two-thirds
(65%) of American adults use some kind of social media and about 90% of young adults do too.
With that being said 68% of people that use some type of social media are addicted to it and 5-

Martinez 3

10% are unable to control how much time they spend online. (Moffit, Brown 2014) Although
Facebook is not quite popular it is a great example of online addiction. People that have used
Facebook in an excessive way have shown low
attention spans as well as a change in emotion and
bad decision making. All these outcomes of using
Facebook in an addictive way show how its
harming out mind in such a negative way. Also
people tend to think that people that use several
different social media are better at multitasking but the truth is wrong. Studies show that they are
actually worse than a normal person. Social media is fun and it could make you lose some stress
just make sure you are aware of its effects on you.
Like mentioned before spending you free time in a physical place rather than the web
brings better outcomes. Because you are physically interacting with people your communication
skills will increase. In an interview that I made I asked several people if they preferred Facebook
or the park as their third space. Surprisingly all three said they preferred the park, because they
like talking to people and interacting with them physically. One particular person named Julian
Diaz said I much rather spend time at the park because I get to interact with people face to face.
With Facebook when someone is talking to you, you cant see their face expressions and their
emotions so you cant really tell if there being sincere or not. Rather when you face to face I can
actually feel their happiness or sadness or whatever emotion is happening. This was surprising to
me because teens these days are always on Facebook, Instagram, snapchat and they would rather
just do that all day than to go out. This has really impacted teens lives because some have even
become antisocial. Which has been considered a physiological disease that could be treated if

Martinez 4

wanted to. Some health centers even offer classes to get these people back into physically talking
to people.

Whether you use your third space visiting a physical place or a website its your free time and
you could do whatever you want. Just make sure you know the effects of your actions. It could
be a healthier life style or not. Just be aware!

Martinez 5

Citations

Humped N., Owen N., and Lesly E. Environmental Factors Associated with Adults
Participation in Physical Activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. (2011):

188-199
Shoup L., and Ewing R. The Economic Benefits of Open Space, Recreation Facilities

and Walkable Community Design. Active Living Research. (2012)

Perrin, Andrew. Social Media Usage: 2005-2015. Pew Research Center. October 8,

2015.
Paddock, Catherine PhD. Facebook Addiction New Psychological Scale. MNT. June

2015.
Interview #1 Juliana Diaz, April 3, 2016.
Interview #2 Erica Martinez, April 3, 2016