The falseness of LinkedIn 

In all honesty, I have never been a huge fan of LinkedIn and why have a decently structured, presentable and rigorously updated profile – I will never know, but I had been suspicious of its fakeness for a long time and my suspicions were verified when and ex-classmate, with whom I have never worked on even one project asked me for a recommendation.

Firstly, it’s supposed to be a professionals-oriented social website, which is a paradox on its own. Sure, I love to meet new people in person and continue having them as contacts, and the most appropriate place to have them would be LinkedIn, as I wouldn’t want my professional mates to be flooded with FB nonsense. And, of course, I recognize that it’s a great platform to get introduced to people you would like to work with in a field you haven’t explored yet, but that about sums up the actual human-generated activity on LinkedIn. In my experience business might start on LinkedIn but it continues via e-mail, or in person due to the website’s user unfriendly message exchange system.

I have always wondered, what is the percentage of people that a business person with a 500+ sign next to their profile picture actually knows in person or has worked with? And the answer that always comes to mind is: “similar to FB”. Similar, because the trend of adding people just for the sake of having a larger than someone digit has never ceased, wherein lays one fake side of this so-called social network. Another would be the recommendations; before this incident happened to me (ex-class mate begging me for a recommendation) I was quite impressed how people in my network seemed to get these wholehearted and wordy thumbs up to let other people know how awesome they are. But after the incident the veil quickly fell and I saw what was going on in reality: people were just kind enough to respond with a: “Sure, buddy.” Also, I have to admit I admire the new gamification incorporated in LinkedIn’s main concept i.e. the endorsement points system, but I yet haven’t seen anyone win a prize. Maybe it’s because the points don’t really matter to anyone?

But in all seriousness, I do enjoy the filter that I have on my LinkedIn newsfeed, thanks to which I don’t have to tire my right hand with an unlimited time period of scrolling between profile picture updates and repetitive self-advertising posts. That way I can follow what the companies I like are saying or see what available job positions they are posting without excessive noise from people I haven’t even been connected to.

These were my recent thoughts on LinkedIn and some observations on LinkedIn users.