Whatever happened to LinkedIn?

-




Out of interest, what is the purpose of LinkedIn nowadays? I used it regularly for several years, had a solid Network of people, most of whom I knew personally and had worked with. It was a good way for us to keep in touch, alert each other to work opportunities, shoot the breeze in a non-aggressive (i.e. Twitter free) way, and now and again to practice my blogging skills. I even found a work contract one time. It was fine. Then I retired, and (as I thought...) closed and deleted the account as no longer relevant to my life. That was in 2018.


A couple of months ago, My Beloved asked me to track down an old work colleague who we had lost contact with, so I revisited the platform and found him straight away. But without having a LI account of my own, I couldn't reach out to him, so I started to set one up (with the intention of it being purely a temporary means to an end) - and lo and behold the old account I thought was no longer in existance popped up, with all the same personal details but without reference to my original (and final) Network. I sent a request to our friend and we are now connected (not that he has renewed contact with either of us, but still - it's a start).

Just for fun, and to wile away an hour or so, I decided to Edit my Profile, since it was totally out of date and irrelevant, but the changes I was able to make were by and large complete nonsense.  For instance, changing my Occupation and Current Employer to "Retired" and "Not Applicable" - a reflection of my reality - was not possible.  According to my Profile, I am still employed by my old One Man Band Consultancy that I set up ten years ago and haven't used since my retirement, and this shows as my tag line and Current (uneditable) Positon.  I managed to set a field under the Open to Work button that says "Retired", so now I get sent lists of jobs tagged "for retired" that are nothing of the sort. I mean, retirement is not a job it's a way of life, and different for every single retiree. And of course other recruiters and agencies are sending me lists of Consultancy jobs in banking, IT, Pharma and a host of other stuff I neither know nor care about.  

The site even looks very different to how I remember it, so I find it a less than an enjoyable experience. Even the posts are somehow different from how I remember them: always a work-oriented social network, it now appears to me to have morphed into a glossy tool to advertise yourself and spell out what a truly wonderful individual you are, and how employers should be falling over each other to make you an offer you can't refuse - complete with slideshows, pdf's and videos to showcase this that or the other. But perhaps 'twas ever thus and my old mind is playing tricks again.  I'm sure this is all very well, all fine and dandy for today's thrusting young executives striving to climb their individual greasy pole......but I'm afraid to this introverted, aging hippy with a life to live and interests to pursue for my own personal satisfaction - well, not to put too fine a point on it, it's all bollocks!

I'm sure there is a market for a social network of this kind, since every damned thing has its own media platform these days, and I don't really have a problem with that.  I'm not particularly active in the area - a bit of Facebook to keep in touch with my friends and family scattered around the world, but that's about it. And my blogs of course, if they count as social media (I don't think they do). I also understand any platform, be it LinkedIn or simply my internet browser of choice, must evolve in line with technological advances and that driving force of everything, The Market - but I wish sometimes a little more thought could be applied when doing so.  To me at least what I've seen on my return to LinkedIn shows me that in this case the evolution hasn't been for the better.  It would have been nice, for instance, if the re-opened account still showed at least the list of names that comprised my old network, and allowed me to re-connect (should any of them want to do so, of course) but that is not the case.  As it stands if I want to re-build I have to a) remember who was in that network (of course I can't), then b) spend hours, perhaps days, using the Search tool to try and track then down.  Frankly, I can't be bothered - and that is no disrespect to them, they were all fine people. I simply just don't see any point in doing it.

Anyway, I know mine is a voice in the wilderness, so I'll finish this rant now and get on with the rest of my life.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Refugee crises are not going away......

-
Image
  A few years back, when I was working in Amsterdam and Britain was unaccountably trying to leave the EU, the entire continent was engulfed in a wave of migrants trying to find a better life.  Cue much hand wringing and panic stories of "terrorists" being in the vanguard.  Boatload after boatload of refugees and economic migrants from across the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa braved the Med in flimsy inflatables provided at extortionate cost by so-called people smugglers, aiming at Greece and Italy, the EU's southern outposts, from the North African coast.  Thousands died but thousands more made it to islands like Lesbos and Lampadusa.  There were no welcoming committees, only police and troops escorting them to transit camps, tent cities on the edge of dusty towns, where they relied on charities to provide them with food and water and medical aid.  Many remain there still.   The nationalists like LePen and Salvini, Johnson and Farage, Kaczynski and Orban raged long a
Read more

A State of Mind......

-
Image
  The thing about depression, I think, is that it's a bloody sneaky ailment.  It creeps up on you suddenly.  You can be feeling perfectly ok, if a bit crotchety or under par, but put it down to factors beyond your control - the weather, tough times at work, latterly Covid - whatever.  Then one day you wake up and it hits you. You are not simply pissed off about these things: you are really really REALLY unhappy about them.  It's beyond anger. Mere frustration is gone. Forget a little bit sad.  You are Depressed. This can happen relatively quickly, a matter of weeks.  Or it can be dragged out over months - years even.  You don't want to get up.  You don't know what to do, how to face it.  You want to shut yourself away somewhere and wallow in self pity.  Every little thing that is not right (in your befuddled brain) makes you blubber like a two year old.  Your appetite goes.  Your concentration levels drop through the floor.  You no longer see the point in carrying on w
Read more

Facing trials.

-
Image
  Today has been a good day.  It's not quite 11 in the evening, and I'm sitting on the balcony in my old and rickety IKEA rocking chair that I fear is nearing the end of its useful life. (It come to all things, including ourselves. But do not think I am coming to that stage - far from it.  So please don't worry - as if you would!)  The day was hot, approaching 30C I think, not bad for early September in Warsaw, and even now it's a comfortable 19C and in my old blue shorts and new black Red Hot Chilli Peppers tee, I'm warm. I have a chilled Lech beer on the table beside me, a full belly from My Beloved's cooking, and the sublime music of Mozart fills my ears.  It truly is a fine ending to a fine day, and I feel thankful and satisfied with my life right now. Of course, it hasn't always been so.  There have been trials to face and there will be more I doubt not.  It's what we humans have to go through (probably all living things do, come to think of it). An
Read more