LinkedIn: The next chokehold on GenZ’s self-esteem

By Freeha Anjum, September 25 2024—

In a world of technology, we forced ourselves to learn that social media presents a skewed perception of reality. We see each other’s best angles, photoshopped faces and only the peak of their lives. We’re trained to remind ourselves that we don’t necessarily see the moments before a photo is taken, or the arguments occurring during a family vacation. Although this is a hard lesson to ingrain, by university it becomes easier to accept the duality.

But becoming a university student also presents a new challenge: LinkedIn. Officially, LinkedIn claims it’s a space to, “manage your professional identity, build and engage with your professional network [and] access knowledge, insights and opportunities,” but it’s essentially the Tinder of the workforce. You see people put their best foot forward: degrees, accomplishments, awards, volunteerism, skills and much more, all in the hopes to attract employers or professional school admissions officers. 

I was told early on in university that having an up-to-date LinkedIn account was important. I ignored this advice until I recently attempted to receive a work position as part of the Science Internship Program, where advisors insisted on bolstering your online profile in case employers search for you. So I set on my journey to actually have a proper LinkedIn account.

The process was immediately nauseating. Writing a biography felt cringe, there was a need to upload links to showcase something interesting (no idea what), and no matter how many activities I input, it felt like my profile was lacking. The experience forced me to think about every aspect of my life, and somehow twist them all into some remarkable successes that would make me supposedly worthy of a job to the employer happening to look through my page. I felt like I was doing it all wrong, so I scoured around some of my connections to see how others presented themselves, in the hopes that there was some secret way to get an internship for the summer.  

I can now safely say that was a bad idea.

“Linkedin always makes me feel like I’m falling behind. Compared to other social media platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn seems less superficial and more realistic,” said Naima Noor, a third year sociology & data science student in a statement to the Gauntlet.

I found myself endlessly scrolling through profiles of people that were doing better than me, and I felt like I was a middle schooler on Instagram again, just wishing I was them.

Since LinkedIn focusses on your accomplishments instead of physical beauty or the financial ability to travel overseas, having a mediocre profile feels more of a personal shortcoming than a professional one. Technically, you can seek out more opportunities to boost your page, and because of that, I find it deteriorates my self-esteem much more severely than other forms of social media.

“LinkedIn takes the worst aspect of social media, the constant self-comparison, and pumps it on steroids because the comparisons feel so much more consequential. You’re acutely aware that the material on your LinkedIn page will determine your employability and position in life, so the constant self-comparison hits much harder than on any other platform,” said Humna Maryam, a fourth year biomedical sciences student in a statement to the Gauntlet.

There is also the added struggle of LinkedIn posts. Instead of seeing images that I can convince myself are just someone’s best angle, I see posts about students getting an award I was rejected from, or pursuing an opportunity I always thought of doing but never did. All of a sudden, it feels like I can only think about my personal failures, and how it’s impossible to make up for the lost time that everyone else apparently used more wisely than I did.

“Makes me feel like my accomplishments only matter if I can turn them into a successful LinkedIn update,” said Sornali Banik, a fourth year neuroscience and computer science student in a statement to the Gauntlet.

LinkedIn fosters a platform for people to brag about themselves, and it becomes more obnoxious the more you let yourself dive deeper into the media. It’s one of the few platforms where you can’t subtly brag, either, because everything on your profile was written by you, with the goal to make it apparent to the public. Imagine people writing, “I have smooth skin and lots of friends,” on their Instagram, instead of posting a photo which only implies the facts. Knowing how LinkedIn profiles can come across often splits students into two denominations: those who don’t want to add things to their profile at all — because they don’t want to be perceived as bragging, or they feel they don’t have things worth bragging about — and those who want to add new things constantly, in an attempt to keep up with the competition. Both are valid ways to cope with the constant pressure of being a student applying for jobs.

“Rather than encouraging genuine connections, LinkedIn often fosters self-promotion and superficial networking, resulting in an atmosphere of inauthenticity. Furthermore, its intense focus on professional success leads to unnecessary stress and pressure, overshadowing personal wellbeing,” said Sabah Virk, a fourth year biomedical sciences student in a statement to the Gauntlet.

I eventually gave up trying to keep an up-to-date LinkedIn profile, knowing the pressure of falling behind was inescapable. And although it feels as though LinkedIn is the worst form of social media, because of the inherent control we believe to have over our own actions that becomes manifested as a profile, I find solace in knowing that we are still only seeing the best parts of people’s lives. I know my profile is void of my failures, and so is everyone else’s. I remember that if LinkedIn was a platform to be honest, people wouldn’t feel their self esteem drop a few seconds into scrolling. 

This article is a part of our Voices section and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gauntlet editorial board.