Why does LinkedIn feel like it's full of insufferable people?

Combining the pressures of social media with the insecurities of looking for a job is creating unbearable behaviour

- Jeremy Au Yong

Everything I am about to say about LinkedIn will make me sound like a hater, but let me assure you I am not. (That said, I have lost count of the number of things I have been accused of hating. Being a grumpy old man can be hard. I hate it.)

I still log in to LinkedIn regularly and do find it useful, despite having abandoned my accounts on other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Yet, of late, I have been finding my time spent on LinkedIn to be increasingly unpleasant. Scrolling through my feed is a joyless, often infuriating slog through what feels like a sea of insecurities. It is as if going on LinkedIn does something to people, like the site is a portal that transforms a well-balanced individual into a peacock. (No offence to peacocks.)

Friends I enjoy hanging out with in real-life often post things on LinkedIn that make me want to confiscate their phones and yell: "Nobody cares that you are humbled and honoured to be named in the 2024 Zone 6 category B list of most impactful senior-to-mid-level executives (integrated solutions)."

Now, I am aware that all social media platforms are performative — it is after all one reason why I decided to spend less time on these things — but I have also increasingly found that the LinkedIn's brand of pretentiousness is singular in its ability to make people insufferable.

I was pondering this LinkedIn effect when the Law Society saga happened, and it made me wonder if the unique traits of the platform had a role to play.