January 2021: Clubhouse and WhatsApp

It's not that easy to get an invitation, but I finally managed it via Google and a Telegram group just for Clubhouse invites! I get invited, return the favor, and off I go. Exciting. “Welcome!” Thank you! Text and emojis, standard call-to-action buttons, quickly select areas of interest from the categories, upload a photo of myself, create my personal profile. Private, business? A mixture, let's see.

And then it starts: I jump to the home page, swipe down, and see lots of “chats” where lots of people are talking to each other. I jump to the chat with the agency boomers, which is very interesting and amusing – I stay and just listen as a newcomer. It's like a live podcast. After a while, I leave – there are lots of other rooms, and I might miss something else. It's evening where I am in Hanover, a breakfast club is starting in one group, and in another chat, someone is saying “Let's get to bed together.” Last night, I received a notification informing me that two of my contacts in a group were talking about “Best Pizza” and that many people were participating in the discussion. I left the chat because I know the best pizza. Mine. Obviously! The next morning, there are countless notifications on my lock screen. I have to turn that off. I take a look: “Get in touch and do business with millionaires.” Great! Ashton Kutcher and Paris Hilton are on Clubhouse, but not in the talk. Oh well, never mind. “Daily Biohacks – Mega Stress Hacks” and “Tech News After Party at 11 p.m.” are on every day – a huge potpourri of content and people. In the conversations, however, there's a lot of “oaah, I think that's really good, respect, that was a real struggle for me...” Phew, discussion out of place. I'll get a coffee and get to work. Video calls, phone calls, emails. I missed the Tech News After Party at 11pm, oops.

Conclusion: I'll definitely check in on Clubhouse from time to time, but I won't focus my time and energy there.

Further note: It will be interesting to see how data protection works, because I can only invite people if I allow them access to my contacts. Otherwise, no invitation is possible. This is problematic in terms of data protection law, and the authorities seem to be monitoring this. Not much is known yet about the app's data processing – only that the phone book profiles are stored on Clubhouse's servers, although only a few are in Clubhouse.