Why I deleted my LinkedIn account

Wellbeing Social
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Why I deleted my LinkedIn account

Hi HTC community!

In 2018, I deleted my LinkedIn account and wrote about why on my blog. Really, it was a rant but people received it well so I’m sharing it with you all here.

Here’s the article: Why I deleted my LinkedIn account

@aschrijver, thank you for taking the time to read it when I sent it to you and encouraging me to share it with the community here.

P.s. that’s my old blog. If you’re interested in more/newer content, check out my new website

Thank you!

(Photo by Amanda Lins on Unsplash)

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I deleted my Linkedin account because:

I never got a job interview from their website.

Social media specifically related to work is the most American thing I could possibly think of.

They never stopped sending me spam emails even though I unsubscribed from everything.

Every weirdo ex-boyfriend I hadn’t spoken to in years wanted to “connect” with me.

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Thank you for the great reading list on your blog!

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Thanks for sharing. I think an important part of your post is how you still created a new account that you use only as a “static online resume.”

I also struggle with LinkedIn. I teach a Business and Professional Writing course for undergrads and one of the first units of the course is resumes, cover letters, and online profiles. LinkedIn is a topic students are naturally curious about.

One of the main problems with LinkedIn is it’s attention merchant business model and all the inhuman implications that come with that (basically what you described in your post). Since it makes money from selling ads for MBA programs and Advisory Cloud scams the platform has a financial interest in trying to make people feel as though they are incomplete because they don’t have an MBA or sit on an advisory board.

Regardless of the annoying aspects of LinkedIn it can be helpful to have a profile, if you don’t have a well established and intentional online presence somewhere else on the web. People will Google you and they will find something, so LinkedIn is an easy way to have a little bit of control over what people find when they search for you. This helps avoid what one of my students described as, “When you search my name the only thing that comes up is mediocre high school sports stats.”

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Thank you for posting @digitalwellnesscoach :pray:

Yes, I agree about the useful aspects. What I find most useful is the ‘rolodex’ function, the ease with which you can find interesting connections and great people (which there many of on LinkedIn). And - depending on your line of work - I guess it can be useful to find jobs too.

With regards to having your resume online, I think there are better ways. This is on my TODO list, but I want to have my up-to-date resume on a personal website, where I also might keep a blog. The advantage is that your personal data is no longer mined and monetized by LinkedIn from then on. Also, if you publish articles, then you can first publish on your blog and then republish to LI (which is better from a copyright and licensing perspective).

On your LI profile you then keep a nice description of yourself, and add a single Job entry with a “Read more at my personal site + full CV” reference. Then you might use the LI profile more selectively, like e.g. your Volunteer activities, Skill endorsements and Recommendations, and only follow Groups you are really reading (rather than a “This is who I am” collection).

BTW I found that Skill endorsements do not work for me, as your old skills will have most recommendations, and are hence featured to your network. This while you are most interested in advertising your new skills. Therefore on my profile I deleted my entire set, and replaced with more human emotions and characteristics (did it for fun and pleasure, but really like the idea now). I also took a sort of a casual title, for that reason.

When you’re carefully curated your connections, then your feed is kinda okay in the information it presents. I find interesting articles and stuff in there. But you should resist the urge to interact with it, like and comment and such, and can also ignore it altogether. Turn off all notifications, of course, if you value mindfulness :slight_smile:

LinkedIn contains a METRIC TON of Deception Patterns! Always has. Have reported some in the past:

But there’s also downgraded experience when you don’t use their app (and even more downgraded when also using Firefox). Support gets ever more unreachable. UI full of bugs which are never fixed. Etcetera.

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An interesting article about LinkedIn found via Hacker News today:

Here’s the Hacker News discussion thread (also worth a read): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25320536

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Nice! Keep it up! I’m almost 5 years without any social and feeling so wonderful about it. It’s so important for people like us to (1) share our story and (2) amplify stories from others like us who are doing similar work. Especially since we can’t rely on traditional social channels.

Big high five.

Are you back on LinkedIn and Insta now?

The other day, on a whim, I published a vlog on YouTube and I felt like a bit of a traitor, but also, I think that now I have learned how to stay “real” while also being more “public” with my life and mission.

On a day to day basis, we’re all always dancing with hypocrisy, which is why this community is so important. We can keep each other sane and hold each others hands while we all walk forward on the tight-rope — using various forms of internet media while also working to transform them.

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I was off social media for three years, and it indeed was wonderful. I got back on Instagram to (ironically) share the message of digital wellness. Its algorithm is awful lol It helps connect me with awesome people though! I’ll check out your YouTube video. No shame in using these platforms to share an important message! :slight_smile:

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