Trending application “clubhouse” and how it’s affecting the lives of the current generation.

• Intro to Clubhouse
• What Clubhouse is doing to the people
• How Clubhouse affect people from different generations
• Pros and Cons to Clubhouse
• conclusion

Clubhouse is an iPhone-only voice-chatting app where individuals can host and join different conversations. Upon opening the app, you are met with a list of “rooms” that you can join, or you can create your own room. Each room has a different topic, often hosted by an expert or pioneer in the field. There are no videos, no pictures, and hardly any text. It’s all just audio. Think about it as joining in on a live podcast episode, Nothing is saved. Users can listen to conversations, interviews, and discussions between interesting people on various topics. When you join, you select topics of interest, like tech, books, business, or health. The more information you give the app about your interests, the more conversation rooms and individuals the app will recommend you follow or join. The conversation room is just like a conference call, but with some people on the call talking, and most listening in. And, just like a phone call, once the conversation is over, the room is closed. Unlike Twitch where live-streamed videos stay on the platform for people to return to and watch.

Clubhouse is invite-only. You can’t just download it off the app store and create an account.

To join, an existing Clubhouse user has to send an invite from their app giving you access to set up an account. If you are invited, you’ll see a link texted to your phone number, directing you to a sign-up page in the app. Clubhouse users can’t just send an invite to anyone who wants to join, however. Existing users only have two invites available at first.

The informal nature of the platform means there is really something for everyone. Conversations range from debating the latest Tv Drama episode to informed political information by famous reporters. The application is especially popular in China because there is a lot of censorship suppression by the Chinese government, clubhouse managed to allow the Chinese citizens to freely open up- giving them a rare chance to freely express themselves and engage in topic discussions that are usually blocked. Chinese users, largely tech investors, and professionals are using the space to talk about topics such as democracy, business, or politics. Clubhouse started off as a small application hosting only 1500 users and was worth 100 million dollars but in the past few weeks, the app had grown rapidly possibly due to the actions of Elon Musk. Hosting an audio chat on Clubhouse with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. This is an experience that can be considered quite rare because it is not an everyday thing for a person to get an audience with Elon Musk and Ceo Vlad Tenev. As simple as one-click in a phone application allowed people to have a valuable experience, this shows how much potential the Clubhouse application holds. The event maxed out the app conversation room limits and was live-streamed to YouTube. It helped propel Clubhouse to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations. Nowadays, Clubhouse has around 2 million users and is now valued at 1 billion dollars. Demand for membership is now so hot that a market for them has grown on platforms like Reddit, eBay, and Craigslist. In China, invitations are being sold on Alibaba’s second-hand market place Idle Fish.

Similar things are happening in Thailand as well. Clubhouse allowed people to get in touch with very easily and broadly. From personal experience, I saw many celebrities interacting with their fans like it was an everyday thing. The experience is quite new and intriguing to me because I am customed to how celebrities are like special people that we’re only allowed to interact with under special circumstances. This application greatly affects the current generation because, in a world where social media platforms allow people to communicate more than ever, Clubhouse takes this to even further lengths giving chance for everyone to freely talk to anyone. I would describe it as an app where you have access to anybody’s phone number. How is it any different from Facebook or Instagram then? Personally, I think it is very similar but they’re introduced differently. It’s like they have different purposes and this has to do with personal space. On Facebook, you have to send a friend request and obviously, you would only accept requests from your acquaintance, and on Instagram, you would only accept follow requests from your friends too. Clubhouse was introduced with a clear purpose of allowing anyone to speak to others. Manners and etiquette are considered as well. You have to raise your hand in the app and the person in charge of the room has the authority to accept. One big difference is that the environment is built in a way that encourages strangers to reach out to each other while not having to get too far off one’s comfort zone.

People from different generations are greatly affected because of the application’s openness. Younger people can easily consult adults and just like mentioned earlier, the comfort zone is a very important matter. People may have trouble talking to people from different backgrounds or ages before because, in person, one can always risk losing something or maybe put in a different ground before the conversation started. One big success was probably because Clubhouse reduced these matters enough to allow people to communicate more freely than ever and wider than ever. This can give people from younger generations and older generations a better insight and understanding of each other.

It is a very good thing to have an opportunity to communicate but, there are also demerits in it. People are more exposed to the internet than ever which could possibly cause the same internet problems that the world had encountered so far but to greater lengths. Cyberbully is possible in the clubhouse. Talking about different generations, it is also possible for young people to be manipulated through this social media platform by receiving fake information. Because it is so broad, it is also difficult to have a logical judgment or a fairground to the information you receive.

Overall, Clubhouse is truly a very interesting application. Just like many other things, there are pros and cons. Looking at the bright side, Clubhouse opens up lots of opportunities like never before. You can get an audience with so many different people simply with one click. It is up to the user to appropriately use the platform to their likings.