Pauleanna Reid never expected to find love in the Clubhouse. But after speaking on a branded Clubhouse billboard, “Social Media Blueprint” in December last year, he received a message on Instagram. She quickly moved her conversation to text messaging, then to phone calls and Zooms. Two weeks later, Reid, a 33-year-old star, flew from Toronto to Washington, DC, where she was greeted with a suite at the Ritz. She has spent the next month with her partner now, and their relationship is now stronger than ever.
“Everyone was very shocked, but also very positive,” Reid said. “And I’d just say inspired by the idea that you can find love in an unlikely place.”
Founded in 2020, Clubhouse is a guest-only audio app that has gained early popularity among the Silicon Valley crowd. His reputation is something like a virtual hole for men in technology, finance and venture capital who like to be heard talking. At least, that was my impression when I joined the platform in January 2021 and came across a few “cameras” on topics such as entrepreneurship, blockchain and cryptocurrencies. In particular, Clubhouse offers only one small photo per profile – the rest of the application is guided only on audio.
“I know so many people who have attended Clubhouse meetings,” says Charlotte Broukhim, an active Clubhouse participant who hosts billboards several times a week. Broukhim used the app to match her new Clubhouse contacts with her IRL friends and noticed situations like Reid’s, where individuals meet in connected chat rooms, enjoy chatting and later connect through another platform – Clubhouse it does not have a direct messaging function.
“Connections have a chance to be a little deeper, because you know each other through conversation,” says Broukhim. If Instagram is a forward image and Twitter is addicted to smart tricks, Clubhouse is probably closer to “real” life, where people, you know, know each other by word of mouth. This new wave of audio-only romance also exists in contrast to dating apps, in which a number of photos and statistics (height, job, age) come before any kind of conversation – in addition, there are no slips endless.
Indeed, although not the intended purpose, Clubhouse may soon rival traditional dating applications. Now is the perfect time for this – the pandemic has only intensified virtual encounters, especially among millennials and Gen-Z. Lindsey Metselaar, the 30-year-old host of the “We Met at Acme” dating podcast, isn’t surprised by the new use of the Clubhouse, even noticing that payment apps like Venmo can become a meeting place for couples. . “I think anything can be a dating app if you try hard enough,” she said.