Tech (8) — Although I have witnessed how powerful the influence of online platforms is, I still decided to stop using Clubhouse
Clubhouse, a remarkable platform founded in 2020, utilise voice passive listening without text, video, or picture, much like a podcast. Users have a great amount of flexibility in that they can freely join calls or chatrooms at anytime as well as leave said calls and chatrooms at anytime. In short, it replicates a real-life gathering of people talking about topics they are interested in.
Lately, the subject Clubhouse has filtered into my own chats and conversations as well. In the beginning, I thought that Clubhouse was just another audio-only application that allowed people to listen to a recording like a podcast. As time passed, however, I realized that Clubhouse was more of a social media application. This was supported by the fact that the number of Clubhouse users worldwide has far surpassed 2 million. In all honesty, I am beyond intimidated by the popularity of Clubhouse around the world. There must have something about this app that I missed, otherwise, I wouldn’t be in the dark about it.
After a couple of weeks of playing around and testing the waters, I could fully understand how people had become addicted to this app in such a short space of time. To me, convenience is my foremost thought when I decide whether to use an application or not.
Unlike podcasts, Clubhouse doesn’t record any of its conversations. So you won’t have a chance to replay it if you missed the schedule. However, for a person like me, having anxiety disorder, missing the schedule is something that would haunt me relentlessly. So either I would need to get rid of the app or I would have to continuously rearrange my daily schedule whenever I receive a notification of new events from Clubhouse. Another downside is that conversations don’t always end on time because of audience participation, so this could bleed into the next hour and the hour after that thereby wasting valuable time. So, to be frank, the best prescription for my mental health is to stop using the app.
On the other hand, as Clubhouse increases its users worldwide, concerns about its data practices have grown. The clubhouse has also suffered a massive data breach which is something that’s definitely on the mind of lots of users. According to BBC, the clubhouse has officially confirmed the breach whereby the data was accidentally leaked out.
If there’s one thing I have learned about Clubhouse, it’s that it’s creator has the talent to see an opportunity despite difficulty. Lately a generic Android version of Clubhouse was launched on the Google Store, which means that Clubhouse no longer holds a monopoly over the audio-only app market. That enlightened me to the easiness of the knock-off industry and how generic versions of various apps seem to pop up almost overnight, however, only the creator of the original app has ownership of the copyright and the subsequent rewards. In short, the voice of a talented creator resonates much louder than that of a clone.
