I Spent 20 Years Hating LinkedIn. Here's What Finally Changed My Mind.

"The biggest turn off was how most of the posting on LinkedIn seemed profoundly insincere and self-serving. I felt repulsed by people promoting themselves shamelessly and taking credit for projects and outcomes they clearly didn't manage. I was somewhere far beyond apathetic about strangers celebrating the new client they landed or sharing banal platitudes to honor their third anniversary. It was humblebrag headquarters, social media that wasn't particularly social."

"On the infrequent occasions that I'd peek at LinkedIn, I kept seeing people pretending to be experts on the technology du jour, whether it was SEO and social strategy a decade ago, or AI literacy and the creator economy today. I saw people vomiting jargon and engagement farming and padding their follower counts with total randos and posting weird personal updates like Facebook refugees. It was like a speed-dating party for a cult of preternaturally sycophantic networking addicts."

"I created an account way back in 2006, but I basically never used it. I know that many professional people are ambivalent about the platform and view it cautiously as a necessary evil (while others are addicted to it as a branding megaphone), but I actually found it loathsome and useless. Sometimes a colleague or friend would try to tease me that my profile was comically out of date, and I would feel deliciously smug."

"But earlier this year, I sadly learned that I'd have to leave my current role. I've changed jobs four or five times in the last two decades, but this would be the first time in that span where I'd need to mount an actu"

LinkedIn is described as a platform that feels loathsome and largely useless, with posting that appears insincere and self-serving. The experience includes discomfort with people taking credit for work they did not manage and celebrating achievements in ways that feel like humblebragging. The platform is also portrayed as a place where strangers share banal platitudes and treat professional milestones as content. When viewed, it often shows claims of expertise in whatever technology trend is current, paired with jargon, engagement farming, and follower padding. Personal updates are compared to low-quality social media behavior. A job change is presented as a reason the platform may become necessary despite earlier rejection.

Read at Inc