In December, Sydney Connors, 28, won a welcome notification to the Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio app. Connors, who paints in public relations and curation of occasions in Cleveland, spent hours there for the first time, joining various teams that appealed to his sensibility. As a theater fan, she added discussions centered on game reading tables. After seeing how the app can be used for artistic efforts, he teamed up with his more than 20-year-old friend, Brandon Patterson, 28, a screenwriter in Los Angeles, to paintings about an ambitious project: producing a virtual production of Dreamgirls, founded on the 2006 film of the same name. The concept was born as a way to galvanize “black joy in an age of darkness,” Patterson said, as well as to boast talented artists who have not been able to perform because of the ongoing pandemic.
The auditions were held on the app for 3 days, and more than 9,000 people sang well-known songs popularized through Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Loretta Devine. The American Idol-style contest was complete with incredibly direct and infrequently funny reactions from the judges. ‘Murky moments, there were no malicious intentions,’ Connors and Patterson told me. In the end, 50 other people were cast in the lead and background roles in 4 separate productions that will be held live on the app in the afternoons and evenings of February 27 and 28.
Even if you weren’t at Clubhouse, the news of the assignment came to Twitter when other people tweeted to explain their idea of auditions, congratulated those who sang well, sent back those who were suffering to find the right key, and called Leroy, the show’s casting director, who closed horrible auditions with a brief “Thank you. “Happy New Year!” Twitter’s good viral fortune is a revealing indicator of Clubhouse’s emerging influence as a social media platform.
Now in its beta testing phase, which began last March, Clubhouse, co-founded through Rohan Seth, a former Google engineer, and Paul Davison, who introduced the now-defunct Highlight app (which connected close users based on unusual interests) – allows users to interact in real-time voice conversations with others from other corners of the world. For now, it is only available to iPhone users who have been referred through a friend or acquaintance who already uses the platform, an Android. The enabled edition is expected to fall by the end of this year.
Users can stop at any of the rooms, which are separated into two factions: the audience and the moderators (or speakers). Once in a room, a user can touch the icon of a waving hand, indicating to the moderator that they have something to say, at which point the moderator can accept or reject the action so they can speak. There are a plethora of rooms to choose from on the app’s “home page,” called the “hallway,” and they span a wide range, from serious and considerate to silly and fun. For example, there have been other iterations of the Whimper Room, which is precisely what it sounds like. With an excited audience, other people vocalize their most productive orgasmic moan and the moderators judge it based on their arousal. (Audio leaked to Twitter of actor Lakeith Stanfield involved in the shenanigans a few months ago. ) There are rooms where you can debate who makes the most productive burgers: Bob from Bob’s Burgers or Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob. Square Pants. And rooms where bearded niggers will read whatever you ask for before you go to bed. You can set up rooms to communicate on intellectual and physical health, general networking events, and just relax vibes.
Recently, Axios wrote an article on the valuation of the nascent app, amounting to $1 billion, an indicator of its potential, but Clubhouse, which now has millions of daily active users, far from the 1,500 it had when it was launched, has already been the subject of controversy.
Celebrity blogger Jason Lee, podcast host and former rapper Joe Budden, and actress Tiffany Haddish, who have become the first user of the platform to surpass one million subscribers, have been accused of promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories and cyberbullying to a doctor about the app. . Kevin Hart appeared in a room titled “Is Kevin Hart Funny?”, where other people debated his comedian skills and a joke from his Netflix special Zero Fucks Given about his 15-year-old daughter presenting a “hoe activity,” which many Hart defended his comedy in the room, then tweeted that he had had an “amazing conversation,” some would call him a revisionist , given the way he had been dragged.
Clubhouse, like Twitter before him, has made our relationships with celebrities more intimate. At some point, follow your favorite singer or actor and take a look at his new mind (unless his PR team has written his tweets); now other people can literally be in rooms with celebrities and have genuine conversations with them.
While the Clubhouse is open to anyone who registers after receiving an invitation, it is undeniable that it has been running for a short time. And while the app is open to anyone who registers after receiving an invitation, it’s undeniable that it now has a means of creativity and black conversation.
“White creators literally had their foot [on] all social media, and Clubhouse was the first app you couldn’t have subscribers in while searching as your white counterpart because they didn’t either,” Allyson Byrd, 43, a former money strategist who works in sales, recounted his delight on the platform. While highlighting some of the app’s traps, adding the harassment it endured and the lack of restraint toward others defending a bad monetary recommendation, he also discussed the benefits of joining a new social network. the application of the media as a black influencer because “no one had an initial advantage, and this gave a sense of equanimity and justice. “He added: “Black creators were as attracted, like Wow, that we won’t be noticed as invaluable because I don’t have numbers.
Clubhouse is the first social app to “feel social in all smart ways,” said one of the first users, a self-proclaimed “extreme introvert” who asked to remain anonymous. He added that the app “creates a lot of magical serendipity”. you don’t necessarily have to look at a screen; you can simply do another activity while listening to the existing conversation. And joining Clubhouse is such a smooth commitment that it can be appreciated as a passive listener. “This mix is unique,” they said, and emotions, where you can create an original connection very quickly. “
“With Clubhouse, you can really set the tone and context, and allow others to see their point of view more broadly,” Ashleigh Louise, an 28-year-old assignment manager and consultant, recently told me in a phone interview. with other apps, you know, [when] you tweet, for example, you only have a certain number of characters, and that leaves a lot for the individual, for interpretation. “
Although Louise, living in the UK, did not enroll in Clubhouse until early November, she now has more than 36,000 followers. Louise presents and moderates “Talks With Ash”, a program on subjective topics that attracts thousands of listeners, regardless of the topic of verbal exchange of the day. Last week, it was the makeup artists’ horror stories. More than 6,000 more people participated in the chat, and many more are waiting to enter the room after reaching their capacity. hashtag, created so that those in the room, as well as those who simply don’t access it, can stay on Twitter, where it was elegant in the world, along with thousands more people.
But like all other social media platforms, Clubhouse has its own abuse and harassment disorders. Byrd explained why hostility is different in Clubhouse than the programs that preceded it. “When you hear someone’s tone of voice, howl, be abrasive and cursed. now hits absolutely for the interpretation you have in your head when you read [a tweet],” she says. You can choose to scroll through a cause tweet or Facebook comment. In what Byrd called a “virtual assault” to her Instagram, she was harassed for calling a work a “scam. “
The app has put in place measures to prevent it from becoming a sewer of toxicity and bad reviews. “Each room has an encrypted background audio recording made of it, and by default, that recording is automatically deleted after the end of the room unless someone makes an incident report while the room was in progress,” the first user said. This allows a Clubhouse administrator, someone working on app finishes, to back up, pay attention to audio and whether a user has violated their terms of service; At this point, they can ” take appropriate measures ”, such as banning the user, if they denies it necessary. Moderators can fight trolls, others who enter rooms with the sole purpose of being disruptive, publishing a list of recent participants and blocking them Hope is that these measures will inspire “other people to be educated and courteous to each other and not cause problems,” the first user said.
Although Clubhouse is said to be a social app that allows others from other backgrounds to connect, its main feature allows you to literally hear how someone interacts with you, so misunderstandings are inevitable.
Adomako Aguy, a New York-based editor and filmmaker, joined the Clubhouse on New Year’s Eve. He was a regular user before recently re-evaluating his appointments with the app. “I take a look at the Internet as it started. You don’t know who’s on the Internet or who’s watching and things like that,” he told me. “The things other people say in an unusual way [at Clubhouse] can be very problematic and dangerous. I’ve had some cases where other people have said things that offend me and I have had to retire. The boy remembers being in a room where a cis guy was looking to better perceive what the term “non-binary” meant.
The verbal exchange was not fruitful because the boy, according to Aman, continued to say, “I don’t understand, I don’t understand,” and expelled him from the level, which included other trans and non-binary people. This highlights some faceta. de the application that can be abused: expelling someone due to an unpopular opinion. “I’ve heard a lot of stories in which other people say, “Oh, I moved from the level because other people didn’t agree with my opinion. “Aman said.
“There’s a very fine line between freedom of speech and being offensive,” Louise told me, talking about the same subject. “I think you can be true to what you say, and if you don’t need what you said at Clubhouse to repeat it to your boss, don’t say it. He said he had a “non-tolerance” policy in his discussion forums related to bad behavior, such as targeted harassment, intimidation and anti-queer discourse, but apart from all this, everyone’s perspectives are valued.
Clubhouse, Byrd told me, “gives you the most important currency, which is audience and attention. “The app is constantly developing, with more than one million active users a day. There are already competitors, such as Watercooler, introduced in May, and Spaces from Twitter, which is still in the testing phase. It remains to be noted whether Clubhouse can make its way and an indispensable social application, such as TikTok.
“When I think of Clubhouse, I think about the importance that other black people have given it,” Patterson, the maker of Dreamgirls, told me. “Black creators exploited it. “
Like other rooms run by cutting-edge black designers, the Dreamgirls audition rooms were in full swing. “When you think about the amount of other people who turn to Twitter and look at the hashtag, other people asking for invitations to participate in the audition, it pushes other people to get involved, “said Patterson. Regarding the cultural verbal exchange around apps like Clubhouse, he added: “I look forward to seeing other people deepen their wisdom of how those white management platforms [will compensate] mainly other black people and other people of color using those apps. and create them bigger.
But for some black designers, it’s already full of odds and opportunities. “I think other people are looking for each and every way they can help themselves. I think other people are looking for each and every one of them. a imaginable way to make yourself known. I think other people desperately want to be heard and have a sense of network and belonging,” Byrd said. “And I also think other people are even more socially uncomfortable than ever. So a platform that requires only your voice, without visibility, which also facilitates the commitment and formulas of your mind [and] sharing your ideas, Clubhouse has come at the best time. » ●
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