State of LinkedIn

Click play to listen to the rant.

LinkedIn is the professional cesspit.

I miss the days when people did good things, or helped people, because it was the right thing to do, and not to capture a social media moment for their ‘eNGAgEment’ hit. When it was about doing a job well, respecting your colleagues, and not building your ‘PeRsoNAl BrAnD’ through a barrage of pretentious crap.

I could just end the rant here, but that doesn’t capture the disdain I have for this social network. Because, you don’t need an ego to work in marketing. But LinkedIn says it helps.

In amongst the birthday notifications (that’s what Facebook is for), the job changes, or the typical humblebrags-but-not-really-humble-bragging, we’re witnessing a new breed of LinkedIner. Where sanity, decency and ethics no longer exist.

Whether it’s bragging about how you’ve sacrificed your LinkedIn engagement for a stronger bond with your daughter, how 9/11 is proof you are where your meant to be, or sharing a picture of a suicidal man you saved from jumping off a bridge just so you can tell everyone, there are no limits to the depths of depravity some are willing to go to for their self-indulgent, ego-stroke.

That’s what this rant is about.

Why is there so much crap on LinkedIn?

My hunch, they’re addicted.

Social media is digital alcohol masquerading as connectivity. Digital addiction. Like some vices, in moderation, it’s pleasurable, in excess, it’s deadly.

Residing in the cross-section of one’s ego, self-validation, and addiction.

By its very nature of job titles, peer-recognition, achievement-flex, and ridiculous algorithmic reach (please change this, Microsoft), LinkedIn is the perfect breeding ground for this deplorable spiral.

We’ve become used to sharing our thoughts, and our worldly views on matters. Those amongst us with a brain, recognise our limitations, but some choose to proceed. Disregarding what little to no knowledge they may have. That won’t stop them.

This can be explained through egocentrism “…perceiving the world and interpreting events from your personal vantage point” (Leary, 2019). Their views matter and the world has to know.

Why?

Well, maybe it’s about self-worth. How we judge and see ourselves (UNCW, 2022). Social algorithms know what makes us tick. They know us better than we know ourselves – unfortunately.

So, when the all-knowing platforms serve content to get a reaction (shit for clicks), we instinctively make comparisons. Someone’s promoted, has a six-pack, a new car, bought an 8-bit image of an ape for £1 billion…you know the score.

Whether we’re consciously aware of it, or don’t want to accept it, it has an impact on how we see ourselves. Changing with every refresh of the newsfeed.

To add fuel to a well-being fire, these platforms have now given a comparative benchmark. A life dashboard. Standardising their immediate successes and external presentation with everything said and done – likes and followers. It’s social currency.

To support self-worth, they now look towards the allure of validation. From strangers. People they’ll never meet or recognise in the street (especially if Photoshop is involved).

They frame their self-image on this reaction. Close friends and family are not their audience or priority, the world stage is where they belong. It takes a second to ‘drop a like.’ The barriers to receiving validation have significantly reduced. Instantaneous. But the competition has significantly increased (Gaba, 2019).

Then we have to consider the newsfeed. The digital casino of content. Round and round the refresh goes, what it stops on, only the platforms knows. The possibilities are endless, but those special LinkedIners, understand the critical nature of probability.

You’re only as good as your last post. That’s leverage. For every carefully, crafted piece of content, you’re competing with thousands of others. All being launched at the very same second.

We’re content machines.

A previous ‘viral’ post will put the odds in their favour. ‘Engagement’ is all that matters. People will see them. Because much like the illusion of gambling (Clark, 2007) these platforms make LinkedIners believe they’re in control of who sees their material.

The ambition, desire, and need to create content for engagement are set. The extent people are willing to go to is only limited by their morals, perspectives, and followers.

Even if it means copying another shitpost. The payoff of global exposure and recognition of their ‘expertise’ is too enticing to ignore. Game on.

Because this isn’t about the message, it’s about how many people see them saying the message. How many people see them ‘doing’ what they do. Giving them a new vantage point via social validation.

Satisfying the dopamine craving from the ‘like’ notification isn’t enough, this is a way of justifying their very existence.

It’s their life. And it’s now or never.

How sad.

The ambition, desire, and need to create content for engagement are set. The extent people are willing to go to is only limited by their morals, perspectives, and followers.

How to protect yourself from LinkedIn

The fact we’ve got to this stage with social media, or web 2.0, is why I have concerns for web 3.0. We’re still seeing the well-being impacts on society and individuals, and only now starting to feel and understand the divisional consequences of unleashing this beast – a rant for another time.

To take a slightly more objective stance with this, LinkedIn (social media), it’s just software. A platform. You only get out what you put in.

The problem is some people have always been wankers. It’s just they now have a platform to share their moronic, tone-deaf views – and get ‘rewarded’ for it. Complete farce.

Maybe when they’ve worked out how to put follower counts on headstones, all of this will make sense.

Historians will know our value and contribution to society through the followers we’ve curated…imagine that.

Until then, LinkedIn is the devil we must dance with until the day comes when we can retire, delete our accounts, and be set free.

Some may consider this the cardinal sin against the ‘PurPOSe of LINkedIn’, but I’ve found that only connecting with friends or people I’ve worked with, helps to decrease the probability of this shit appearing on your feed. But, you can’t control what everyone engages with.

So, while it might be tempting to comment, condemn or call out, the nature of the game means this gives the LinkedIner what they want – exposure. The ‘negativity’ perceived as ‘envy’ as they climb the digital pedestal.

Mute. Block. Report.

I also recommend unfollowing everyone – the experience is 100% more user and well-being friendly.

And, if by any chance you’re reading this and you’re the type of LinkedIner who posts this crap because you need to prove the ‘good’ you’re doing or want to make your POV known, do us all a favour – think before you post.