There is a new social media platform that has become all the rage among celebrities and the Who’s Who of Silicon Valley over in the US. This platform is an app called Clubhouse and I’m not talking about the sandwich or that building where they hold soirées for members of some exclusive country club — though this app’s invitation-only premise does bear some resemblance to the latter.
So what is it?
Clubhouse is an audio-only app in which users can chat in real time, bounce ideas off of each other, collaborate, and share stories using only their voice in virtual chat rooms. Kickstarted in early 2020, it is an exclusive platform to which users can only gain entrance when they have been invited to do so by already-existing members.
And it boasts quite an impressive clientele. On any given day you can wander onto a chat room in which Oprah, Kevin Hart, Drake, Chris Rock, or Ashton Kutcher are sharing their thoughts on current events. Exciting, right? So when can the public get in on this, you ask?
Not so fast.
It could take a while before it becomes public
According to the Clubhouse creators themselves, the app wasn’t quite built to handle a lot of people accessing it all at once and there are quite some affairs to get in order before they can effect a mass rollout — not the least of which are the technical aspects of widening the app’s capacity to hold a large number of users and drawing up protocols for punishing unacceptable behavior.
They are running tests on these issues as we speak but still no word on a time frame for the next phase of their activities to get the app ready for mass consumption. But imagine what kind of future that will lead to once they accomplish this — you can pick the brain of the world’s biggest names on different topics or get insight on technological advancements from the world’s brightest minds. It can also be a very useful tool for networking. And all from the comfort of your own home or while you’re breaking a sweat in the gym.
Granted, the app is not without its faults — there have been incidents of sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic behavior from users — but imagine how much good it can do once we weed out the kinks and harness its voice-enabled power to bring the social back in social media.
