Does anyone agree that there is something gauche about LinkedIn? I think its the way they spread the fear of terminal unemployment lest you expand your network. Messages like ”Harvard Business School graduates average 58 connections” and ”Adding 5 connections makes you 3.7x more likely to receive a job offer” make you feel there is some sort of great wild west connections rush on and you better get stuck in boy - or end up destitute in the great depression. Obviously. LinkedIn is clever and useful and if you apply a touch of cultural logic its just another part of the invisible hand of capitalism nudging us all along. But the brand expierience is so unrelenting that it feels like a game rather than a service. Relationships are best run face to face and the story that LinkedIn tells you could make you forget this. If you know someone who knows someone who knows someone, then you don’t know them at all - and you should probably meet up in person.

Right, I’m off now - to apply for a job as an Avionics Maintainance Project Manager that LinkedIn helpfully suggested to me this morning!  

Tags: linkedin, social media, social network