Campfires in a Dark Forest: The Secret of Clubhouse

When you’re lost in a forest at night, it’s best not to call for help. You have no idea what might be lurking in the shadows. Similarly, saying the wrong thing online can get you shamed, blamed and burned. Yancey Strickler called this the Dark Forest theory of the internet in 2019, and suggested that people are increasingly retreating to private spaces to have genuine conversations.

Now, pockets of light are appearing in the darkness. These are the Digital Campfires: communities where people gather to have face to face interactions in real time, usually on platforms like Zoom, and often with the explicit intention of practicing new kinds of dialogue.

The newest Digital Campfire is Clubhouse — an audio-only app exploding in popularity. But does it mark a new era in how we communicate online, or is it just a passing fad?

To begin answering this, we need to draw on insights from cognitive science, psychology and the wisdom traditions to examine what’s happening when we engage in audio-only dialogue. In doing so, we may surface a more knotty question: as we start to leave the major social networks in search of something better, what is it we’re really looking for?

Better Conversations