Around the end of May 2021, there was an explosion in the social media community of Keratitis. I am sure this may to other parts of India as well. The phenomenon was clubhouse!. Most of my Malayali friends had signed up for clubhouse and were having discussions on various topics for hours, if not for days. The covid lock-down and loneliness might be a reason for this enthusiasm. Nevertheless, it has become a cool kid hang out place. Some of the discussions had an 8K live audience.
Clubhouse is the most recent addition to social media. There are two fundamental differences between the clubhouse and the other social media platforms. One, it is audio-based. There is no option to express yourself through a text. Two, the conversation are “live only”. This means that there are no recorded conversations here. It is interesting to see that the restriction of many functionalities is making a platform more likeable. Discord is another platform that allows audio rooms along with Whatsapp like functionality (even more) for text messages. But clubhouse only has audio chat rooms which restrict you to use only live, verbal communication.
FOMO and clubhouse
Ever since the social media explosion, we are in constant fear of mission out (FOMO). I tried temporarily deactivating Facebook for a couple of months when I wanted to write my PhD thesis, back in 2016. After that, I felt like I cannot even understand this new language. It felt like so much has changed in few weeks. Not understanding the trending references and memes made me feeling left out.
The clubhouse is the ultimate FOMO machine! You cannot take part in the conversation that is already passed. Nor you can listen to it (unless someone recorded it). Often you feel miss out as people describe in other platforms about the “fun” they had in the discussions. This forces you to watch out for all the discussion that is happening all the time!
Nightmare for introverts
Who do you prefer to hang out with? An extrovert or an introvert? I tend to think more people like to be going out with extroverts. Generally, extroverts are the heroes of every group. They are the popular kids in school, they get patted by the elders and relatives. In college, they are the leaders. Everyone wants to be in a group full of extroverts. There is enormous peer pressure to act like an extrovert to make our voices heard. Extraverts have an undue advantage in the real world. Even in a professional environment, some firms like to hire people who are more charismatic in their appearance thinking that they will be more motivational to the group and be more efficient.
Social media changed this biased game forever. The charismatic extroverts are no longer the cool kids here. The main reason was the text-based platform. Merely being an extrovert (or introvert) will not make you a popular writer. The writing platform has a fair game for all spectrum of people. This is why many of the heroes from college don’t seem to “shine” on social media. Many popular kids in social media are introverts in real life. In a way. it gave some kind of democracy to social interactions.
Writing is mostly an introvert’s game. In a vocal environment, they fade away
People portray the clubhouse as the closest thing to a natural conversation. They feel that half of your argument is lost when you write it down. But who rules a natural conversation? The charismatic extroverts. In such a conversation, it doesn’t matter if your argument is valid or logical. All it matters is that whether you can make it convincingly. If you have a charming assertive voice you can shine
Making a point verbally without losing the chain of thought is a difficult process for many people. Many people need special training for acquiring such skills. If the discussion is on a public platform with a lot of listeners, the problems amplify. It is partly true that a platform like Clubhouse is a good place to develop these skills. But as an introvert, you are unlikely to be raising your hand moving to the speaker’s panel.
A gender issue
After joining the clubhouse and attending many discussions right and left, I shared the excitement with my partner. She asked
” So it’s just chat rooms, can we listen to it or respond to it after the discussion is over?”
“Nope. This is like a real discussion, if you are in it”
” I assume it will be full of men. When will women get this much free time to indulge in random real-time discussions !”
This was an angle that I never thought of. Text-based social media (even YouTube has a “comment” section) has given chance to the section of society who doesn’t have any time for socializing and being part of a discussion. For working women ( most of them who has to do household work when they come home) or women with kids (who needs their constant attention), text-based platforms give a chance to be part of the discussion or socializing. The responses or discussions are not been done in real-time and you can come back to a debate when you have some free time. Clubhouse discussions are inherently discriminatory for such sections of society. You may argue that it is the status quo ( that women should take care of the household and kids) needs to be changed. But why should they be discriminated against until it happened?
It is too early to predict the future of Clubhouse and the chance that it will replace the text-based platform. I bet that this initial interest will be down soon and this will be a platform to arrange discussion occasionally. And I hope text-based, easy-paced and in-depth discussions will continue despite this clubhouse mania.
Chithrabhanu Perumangatt 