I just deleted Clubhouse from my phone. I have tried it for two weeks and have come to the conclusion that the platform in its current state does not provide any value to me.
The first week I tried using it as intended.
I betrayed the privacy of my contacts by uploading their information to the Clubhouse server and followed all of those who were already on the platform.
The first few days I listened in on a few rooms to understand how the platform works. Since about half of the rooms discuss about Clubhouse, this was easy enough. Then I went to the second stage, and once in a while, when I thought I had something useful to share I requested stage access. I even met a few new people.
After a week the constant stream of notifications started to bother me, so I dialled down the notification frequency to “Very infrequent“.
This week I also started thinking about why Clubhouse is such a success and why I don’t feel it is a good fit for me.
First, the barrier to enter is very low. You’re immediately welcomed by your friends, even if you didn’t upload your contacts, since your friends already did. You can just enter and leave rooms until you find something interesting.
For me the biggest issue has been finding interesting rooms. It may be because of my contacts, but I found that in most rooms they talk either about what is Clubhouse, about online marketing or about both. Sometimes I found an interesting room in the “Upcoming” list, but always at an inconvenient time. Furthermore, you can add future rooms to you calendar, but I’d rather simply receive a notification within the app when the room starts.
I have met some people who spend several hours a day in Clubhouse, but that is not how I want to use social networks. I want to connect at a time that is convenient for me, and have an interesting conversation at that very moment. Ah, and I prefer conversations with a small group of people instead of big rooms of listeners.
As it is right now, Clubhouse is set up as a conference center, with a few people speaking on stage and many listeners. I would prefer to see a version set up as a bar, where I can join a small table where everyone participates.
Until then, goodbye Clubhouse.
