Talking About Car Life as a Couple

Since the beginning of this year, we’ve been using the audio SNS app Clubhouse to talk about our family’s car life as a couple. Every Saturday at 10 p.m. for about an hour, we held talks about “This Week’s Car Life” and “Blog Afterwords”. However, at that time, Clubhouse wasn’t available on Android, so only iPhone users could listen in.

Later, Twitter added a feature called “Spaces” that allows real-time audio conversations, so we now stream weekly on Spaces.

Despite the late hour of 10 p.m. on Saturdays, about 30 to 40 people tune in each time, and we’re truly grateful for that.

Some have asked, “Do you prepare and rehearse before each session?” but we hardly do any prep—just a quick sync before starting, like “This week, I got to test drive ○○, so let’s talk about that?” between us.

Because of that, there are days when I think, “Maybe we’ll only have about 30 minutes of content today…” but once we start, the conversation flows endlessly, and the hour flies by every time.

We’ve held about 25 sessions so far, and lately, I even feel like one hour isn’t enough to cover everything (laughs).

So today, I want to share what we’ve felt from hosting audio SNS sessions as a couple.

The Fun of Audio SNS

Audio SNS is genuinely fun. I find it fascinating how conversations naturally expand topics.

Usually, I run a blog where I communicate through writing. Writing has the power to move people’s hearts and lets us organize our thoughts calmly and clearly, but it’s harder to convey immediacy and a sense of presence.

With audio SNS, since we can talk in real time, sometimes my husband will say, “That reminds me of something…” and share something completely new to me, or I’ll realize “Oh, that’s how he’s been thinking about it.”

This kind of dynamic doesn’t happen in blogging, which makes it really interesting.

Also, we’ve had a few of my husband’s car friends join as speakers to talk about their beloved cars, and having a three-way conversation was refreshing and fun.

We hope to continue inviting guest speakers and have three-person chats in the future.

Another fun aspect is that you can see exactly who’s listening. The listeners’ Twitter IDs and icons appear in real time, so unlike a blog broadcast to an anonymous mass audience, it feels great to see faces and builds a sense of closeness.

Once, Kawakubo-san from Roperaio dropped in to listen, and we got super excited, thinking, “Wow, a celebrity just joined!” (laughs).

One of the best things about audio SNS is that it lets us convey the couple’s vibe… even though we’re just chatting away for an hour (laughs).

At first, I wondered, “Is it really okay to just talk as a couple?” but many listeners say they enjoy hearing behind-the-scenes, everyday couple conversations that feel like the backstage of the blog.

Also, it’s fun that we can talk about things we can’t write about in the blog.

In a recent Space, my husband shared his views on the current Porsche used car market.

He said, “Topics like when to buy, price increases, and decreases can be sensitive, so it’s easier to talk about them in an audio SNS where people can just listen casually.”

Indeed, since blogs remain as text, some topics feel tricky to cover, but with audio, we can share off-the-record stories and speak quite frankly, which is enjoyable.

The Future of Spaces

We hope to keep improving and making our audio SNS broadcasts more enjoyable.

Recently, someone tweeted, “I’d love it if you inserted car engine sounds from your YouTube videos as interludes,” and I agree—that would add a cool radio show vibe.

Audio SNS will surely continue to grow and upgrade its features, so we hope to keep offering fun and engaging moments.