To hate LinkedIn with a passion?

[Thepeopleversuswork]

I know, I know, it's the only acceptable "professional" social media network and its essential for finding jobs and for building your brand and building connections bla bla bla. I use it for a living and I recommend clients use it.

But its just professional sycophancy dressed up as "insight" with a very transparent veneer of "authenticity". People post self-serving shit designed to suck up to their boss/shareholders or be picked up by algorithms and people line up to say "so insightful" and other platitudes. A tiny fraction of the things posted on LI are genuine or thoughtful. They are all just corporate drivel disguised as commentary.

For all their toxicity and addictive qualities (and God knows I hate Elon Musk) at least X, Facebook and Insta are, dare I say it, real?

Thank you. See also:

• How Gaza taught me to be grateful for Great AI tools!
• Why running an ultramarathon every day gives me a new perspective on organising paperclips
• A masterclass in building excel and how it will change your life!
• I've worked with XX for years and I've found him/her to be the most dynamic operator!

With emoji-like bullet points like you're punctuating for a group of year 1 kids. And the veneer of spirituality and revelation wrapped around endless screeds of people trying to sell other people shit they don't need by pretending to know and care about them.

I read ‘LinkedIn lunatics’ on Reddit. It’s hilarious.

It’s unbelievably cringe on there, yes.

I also hate charitable posts that are really just virtue signalling and an excuse for a day out.

Stuff like 'had a great day with company A playing golf and sunbathing. We raised 8 pence for charity, well done all'.

Coupled with a picture of them in a company A bra top and hot pants.

Yes... or pictures of the backs of of loads of white middle aged men in business suits sitting in a conference centre with a whiteboard visible in the corner of the screen with some cryptic and self-aggrandising caption "I love it when a plan comes together!"

This is supposed to be interesting to whom, exactly?

At least in the days of tabloid newspapers people got that you have to think about the audience rather than just spaff it onto the internet.

I've just got on LinkedIn because I'm career changing (not a thing in my previous sector, very much a thing in my new one).

But sweet lord - I would never need to work again if I got a pound for each post that starts with 'Thrilled to announce... ' or 'Honoured to be...' or 'Delighted that...'. I just want to tell them all to FUCK OFF as I desperately search for a job before my redundancy money runs out...

Oh yes and some story about the poster’s child who stood up for the bullied child in the playground (complete with photo of said child) or some other such guff complete with moral of how we can replicate his child’s exemplary behaviour in the workplace. So nauseating and so FB.

My particular pet hate posting ‘Thank-you Dave for such an interesting and informative input today. Can’t wait to get back to the office and put your ideas into action’ Oh do fuck off to the far side of fuck off town 🤮

My particular pet hate posting ‘Thank-you Dave for such an interesting and informative input today. Can’t wait to get back to the office and put your ideas into action’ Oh do fuck off to the far side of fuck off town 🤮

Right? It's so nakedly obsequious. Why do people need to be fluffed in this way by minor acquaintances?

Yeah I agree with you on the LinkedIn fodder.. Absolutely unbelievably fantastic achievement hosting this amazing group of superheros for health and safety training today etc

I wish I never tried to set up a profile on LinkedIn. I got half way through setting one up and then I got locked out and haven’t been able to regain access to it ever since. I have tried everything. I have even resorted to asking ChatGPT for advice. Nothing works. So now I have an unfinished profile which looks like I have barely any experience in the field I work in. Unless I manage to regain access to it then it could stop me from being successful on any job applications if prospective employers look me up on LinkedIn. It’s embarrassing and frustrating.

The real problem with LinkedIn as opposed to other social media is that most people don’t really understand what to post. There are some really great people on LinkedIn posting funny stuff, informative stuff, helpful stuff.
Fundamentally it’s a way of meeting new people just like any other social media. People get hung up on the ‘work focused’ aspect of it.

I still maintain that all social media is ‘false’ in that most people set up shots and situations. On LinkedIn these are just more obviously cringe worthy.

The self indulgent clap trap and drivel makes me slightly unwell.

It gives me thr full ick yet here we are forced to use it

I don’t mind if posts are limited to professional or career related topics but I find there a creep towards talking about your children’s exam results or graduation day etc which really belongs on Facebook.

You are not wrong. A lot of it is sycophantic grimness, or self aggrandisement beyond recognition. And last time I used it, had started to seem a bit like Facebook. I’m going to x to x for x charity. Or worse, a dating site. Bleugh. I left it a few years ago. Rely on personal contacts or contacts of contacts now, if need be.

YANBU.

It's an absolute cesspool.

There is some good content on it from time to time. But the thing that bothers me is that its at heart very transactional but pretending to be about genuine friendships.

I know all social media is "fake" in the sense that everyone presents their best self etc. But there's something about LinkedIn that I find particularly mendacious because it wears this veneer of "human connection".

Facebook is utterly grim and you know people use filters etc but if someone posts you know they are posting to a genuine cross section of people who they like or at least are in their social circle. With LinkedIn its all deliberately calculated to appeal to people who might give you a job or might recommend you as a supplier or whatever but wreathed in this awful "that' so spiritual!" language.

It feels even more dishonest than the other networks.

From LinkedIn Lunatics today - absolutely hilarious:

There have always been people full of their own importance when it comes to their job. At least if it is on LinkedIn and/or you work from home some or all of the time, you are spared having to witness such behaviour.

Well it is a professional network, so it’s populated by people making themselves visible and promoting their accomplishments within their industry. It’s obviously very tame and not particularly authentic, but it serves such a different purpose to other SM platforms that it’s nuts to compare them.

But that's exactly my point. As a professional network it's absolutely fine: it serves its purpose well. I hate this more recent mission creep into "content".

A site which functions very well as a jobs exchange doesn't in my view translate well into a forum for people to bang on about "creating impact".

You're the only person I have ever known describe Insta as real 😁

That was pretty special. This is also a classic of the genre.

Anyone who has an electrolyte drink before 6am and writes down their goals and checks their bank account before 7.30am needs a proper night out.

Sorry, fail. Will try to post the picture!

I love photos like this where everyone looks bored to tears in a bland meeting room and the caption is something like 'Exciting plans ahead' or 'SUCH a great day with XYZ.'

Also laugh whenever someone responds to a 'Anyone know of any jobs?' type post by tagging someone and saying something like 'Do you have/know of anything?'

I always imagine the person being tagged feeling shamed into responding!

But it’s just for self-promotion surely - annoying but necessary if you’re an ambitious, career driven person.

If a company is hiring and compare three candidates’ LinkedIn profiles, and two are just the CV part but one shows a lot of posts demonstrating what they’ve been up to etc, wouldn’t that give the latter candidate the edge?

For information I’m in the former group.