If Sting were writing lyrics for The Police today instead of 1980 and coming up with ‘When the world is running down, you make the best of what’s still around’ he’d probably write ‘While the world is speeding up, you have to keep your feet on the ground’. OK that’s doesn’t quite scan, but you get my drift?
By 7am GMT today I’d been in Clubhouse an hour – the new currently ‘Invite Only’ to add an air of exclusivity Social Media In-Thing App. With thanks to an Instagram friend for the invite. Already I’d listened to a debate on the proliferation and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), dropped into a Q&A with internationally famous artist and brand collaborator Takashi Murakami, then when he closed the room I was into Art Provocateur Kenny Schachter’s Instagram linked article on NFT (nifty) Art (non-fungible tokens, believe me, it’s B-I-G) and Nifty Gateway which, also being in the realm of data mining and Crypto Currency, is a parallel world. Art, Music & Tech, that’s all right up my street.
Taking all this detail onboard is what I’ve been doing ever since the Internet became the font of all knowledge and the proliferation of Apps like Clubhouse are supercharging our learning, particularly in the field of business and marketing. Yes, by all means continue to read self-help books, but in less than five hours listening in on my iPhone (iPhone only right now) to what may be described as 6x NY Times Best Selling International Marketing Rock Stars and many other mere mortals from the University of Life I’ve gleaned an immense amount of useful information around Social Marketing and Personal Branding for free. With the kind of people involved in some ways it’s a little like a live and interactive Linked-in but without the political sycophancy in replies that often annoys me.
Think back to the Industrial Revolution, most people were so poor they kept their worldly possessions in a purse tied to their belt and paid a penny to stand against a rope most nights to sleep undercover in a ‘Doss House’, the endeavours of Victorian Superstars such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel (what a name!) were a world away. It took a week to cross the Atlantic. The way steam engines work and smelting iron are also fairly easy to understand. Yesterday, I was in the comfort of my own home sharing an interactive electronic ‘stage’ using super-fast WiFi chatting tips and traps on a ‘telephone’ about how to work the platform with likeminded people of all ages from Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dublin, Manila, Melbourne and Delhi. And we don’t even think about that anymore!
Clubhouse or CH as it’s known shorthand, is best described as Interactive Podcasting. It’s an online space where ‘Clubs’ are created and ‘Rooms’ are opened within each club. So, for example you could have a Club titled Running a $10M Dollar Business and a Room in that club scheduled at 3pm EST could be about Personal Brand Building on Instagram created and run by a couple of industry expert moderators who share a ‘Stage’ with erudite speakers. If you’re in the room and raise your hand you may be invited to the stage to ask a question and enter the debate. It’s addictive. The upside, you can be anywhere, in any environment work, home, gym. You could be painting your lounge with it running alongside and ‘Chime In’ to comment at will, nobody will see the paint brush! The downside, since it’s all spoken word it’s invasive and if you really get into it, and you will, because you love learning stuff and can put up with some people ‘going on a bit’, it could begin to replace your time watching TV or listening to music. That’s a big thing for someone who plays vinyl records to listen to his HiFi 😉
It’s amusing that many of the moderators and recognisable ‘super-users’ appear to be around much of the time to the exclusion of everything else. Of course, they’re really working and have CH ‘on the side’ and can interact at will. But it reminded me that as a kid I never thought about the Sixties and Seventies pop and rock bands you saw on TV doing anything else than living together 24-7 in a big country house, in stage wear, makeup, and being chauffeured to Top Of The Pops or Juke Box Jury / Superstore etc. Now picture Kiss, Roxy Music or The Sweet in their Glam Rock pomp…..
Anyway, CH is here to stay and bar one or two obvious improvements (it’s in Beta at the moment) good to go. Quite what it will be like as v4.1 once the developers have tinkered too much with the algorithm and altered the functionality, like Twitter or Instagram for example, remains to be seen.
My point in flagging up our over-speeding world is a reminder for my fellow creatives and a mental health one. Take a step back, go walking, get some fresh air, read books, listen to music, chat to loved ones, because knowledge and it’s availability is high frequency and it’ll suck you in and spit you out if you don’t take care. It will be there tomorrow.
As is custom to sign off in CH. “I’m Steve and I’m done talking”.
Bye for now.
Clubhouse @thestevecee