I currently have more than 900 connections on LinkedIn. Realistically, I probably only know about 200 of them. On a weekly basis, my inbox is inundated with emails urging me to accept “invitations to connect” with strangers and to explore the profiles of our mutual connections — and I hate it.

In comparison to other social media platforms, LinkedIn masks its toxicity under a guise of “professionalism” and “executive development.” An article published by The Guardian accurately describes the ordeal as “a giant, living, breathing resume, complete with bad formatting, plasticised optimism and synthetic relationships.” It weaponizes productivity, trapping its users in an endless cycle of networking. And with more than 300,000 job applications submitted on the platform every hour, LinkedIn’s propagation of this serial professionalism appears to be far from slowing down.

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Similar to other social media sites, LinkedIn hinges upon branding and self-promotion. The platform leverages the same damaging tendencies of self-comparison, but through the misleading rhetoric of professional development and career advancement. It offers substantial opportunities for users to inflate their credentials and present an exaggerated or misleading image of their qualifications. A recent study found that more than one-third of LinkedIn users fabricate certain details in their profiles. These falsified details can prove especially damaging to the mental state of users, perpetuating feelings of imposter syndrome and complacency. The site’s resulting domain emerges as a warped professional hierarchy, where profile connections and skills function as points to keep score.

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This overwhelming user experience is not uncommon for the average university student. With more than 199 million members and counting, the United States currently ranks as the country with the highest number of LinkedIn users. More than 59.1% of LinkedIn’s user base is composed of people ranging in age from their mid-20s to early-30s, particularly recent college graduates. A common affliction for this age bracket is career uncertainty, which makes them even more vulnerable to self-doubt and insecurity.

“I probably spend around three to five hours on the app per week,” said Andrew Van Baal, an LSA sophomore studying Environmental Science. “Scrolling through the endless feed of achievements definitely creates a bit of imposter syndrome.”

Recent studies have revealed nearly half of LinkedIn’s users as prone to these feelings of negativity, evidence that the effects of the app’s toxic hustle culture is experienced by the bulk of users. Despite these sentiments, however, many individuals feel that LinkedIn is harder to ‘quit’ than traditional social media. With nearly 85% of jobs currently being filled through networking, LinkedIn’s web of connectivity is getting progressively harder to escape.

This perceived necessity of LinkedIn as a “job search assist” has become the gold standard of the app’s interface, trapping users in an endless scroll under the veil of professional development. Correspondingly, LinkedIn’s revenue increased by 26.2% in 2022, currently resting at a cool $14.5 billion. The platform’s reliance on monetizing user data and leveraging connections to generate profits results in a direct commodification of interpersonal relationships. Ads and sponsored content are also designed to match users’ job aspirations, causing even the pursuit of career ambitions to be exploited as an opportunity for profit.

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However, as is the case with most social media, the problem does not lie exclusively in the app’s interface itself, but also in the way users engage with it. Platforms like LinkedIn have blurred the boundaries between professional and personal domains, guilting individuals into engaging in business relations outside of the office for fear of “falling behind.” Consequently, the daily use of work-related apps like LinkedIn is eclipsing what we consider as leisure time. The statistics corroborate this reality, with three-quarters of Americans reporting symptoms of burnout in their jobs.

Currently, the United States has one of the longest workweeks in the world. Job unhappiness among the American working class is also currently at an all time high. Apps like LinkedIn have only exacerbated this reality, with the platform conflating personal relationships with professional connections, and encouraging users to hitch their self-worth to their careers. Technology has eroded the traditional boundaries of the workplace. Remote work options, online meetings and professional social media have all managed to bypass the physical confines of the office, causing a work-life balance to become increasingly unattainable.

For the time being, it appears LinkedIn is here to stay. In a progressively interconnected world, networking is a necessary evil. So, before you consider deleting LinkedIn entirely, I would advise users to simply change the way they approach it. Limiting screen time and attempting to truly disconnect during leisure time is a great way to start. At the end of the day, success is not a still image — it’s due time that we stop allowing social media to make us think otherwise.

Tate Moyer is an Opinion Columnist from Los Angeles, California. She writes about issues relating to digital culture and technology, specifically the dangers of unchecked social media use. She can be reached at [email protected].

Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY