Member-only story
Clubhouse Isn’t Perfect, but It Will Last
I tried the hot new thing in social media
The last thing I need is another social media network, but the buzz around the still invite-only Clubhouse is so strong, I had to give it a try.
Clubhouse isn’t like other platforms I use. It’s only audio. There are no images, no video, and no river of content. Most of what I can see is the formation of rooms, the topics they’re discussing, and a list of those in the rooms. Inside those spaces are basically virtual stages where someone, or maybe a few people, are leading a discussion or presenting, and others, sometimes hundreds, are listening in.
There’s no cacophony of chatter (unlike still-in-testing Twitter Spaces, which I think was launched in response to Clubhouse) because the room organizer has control of who can talk and when. Clubhouse also comes across as a relatively safe space because there are no anonymous accounts. You sign up with your real name and a real phone number. Plus, for now at least, you have to be invited/referred by someone else. If you break the rules in Clubhouse, they might boot you and the person who referred you.
Still, like most young social platforms, Clubhouse has experienced its share of growing pains. When journalists were more or less excluded from the platform, Clubhouse users (at the time…
