Burning The Bridge

 I just killed my LinkedIn account.

Why, you may ask, would I do something like that?  "LinkedIn is indispensable!  It's an important resource!  It helps you network and find jobs and be seen as a serious candidate!"  No, it does none of those things, nor is it any of those things.  Not any more.  I have sat and watched over the last decade as LinkedIn becomes increasingly irrelevant while perversely proclaiming its ever-growing importance.   It has become the manifestation of the Dunning-Kruger effect taken to a ludicrous extreme.

I can legitimately say that LinkedIn has never once been directly or indirectly helpful to me in finding work.  It has not done anything helpful for networking that I couldn't have done just through normal freelancing work or a basic web search.  I've gotten hit by a scammer through LinkedIn.  I've had several so-called "recruiters" try to hit me up for roles that I had no interest in, completely failing to read my profile.  I've had one interviewer (which I'm pretty sure I came into contact with through a regular job posting not on LinkedIn) look through my LinkedIn profile while she was interviewing me, and not really listening to what I was saying.  And over the last decade, dear weeping creeping Jesus, the cesspool of "thought leadership" which shows itself to be a combination of grotesque egomania, unbridled narcissism, and a horrifying lack of self-awareness.  Not mention a basic lack of contact with reality.  When there is a dedicated subreddit called "r/linkedinluntics" which regularly posts newer and more cringeworthy screenshots of so-called "leaders" spouting off and demonstrating that there are people in positions who absolutely should not be in them, it stops being funny and provokes the sort of existential dread reserved for members of apocalyptic cults.

I've backed up all my articles.  I saved the one recommendation letter I ever got (my old boss from The Armchair Empire).  I've got plenty of contact emails squirreled away.  And I gave my contact list plenty of time to either reach out or hit me up on Bluesky.  The profile will probably still linger on in search engines for a little while yet, but as for me, I'm gone.  I'm actually not thrilled about it.  There's no sense of triumph.  No feeling of release and a boundless hope of new things to come.  Just a numbness which hasn't yet had the chance to have sensation restored.

There's undoubtedly a lot of blame to go around.  You could blame Microsoft for buying up LinkedIn and turning it into the steaming pile of human waste that it has become.  You could blame LinkedIn for trying to be "Facebook For Business" and not really thinking about all the stupid things that happen on Facebook.  You could blame the Internet for relying on algorithms which promote "engagement" over substance.  Hell, lay some blame on the MBA schools who push forward ridiculous theories of management and corporate governance that do everything to try and contradict the core tenets of good business and basic social interactions in the name of "maximizing value."  It's the grandest of circlejerks.  And I am weary of it all.

The world will little note my leaving LinkedIn.  Microsoft won't give a damn, obviously.  Just one more number in the monthly churn rate.  But it's not about them.  It's about stepping back from the madness.  It's about chucking a "tool" which never once worked, despite my efforts to try and make it work for me.  It's about trying to find another way forward.