Apple announces new features to help break the "LinkedIn Curse."

For the past couple of months, I’ve been suffering from what I call “The LinkedIn Curse”.

"The LinkedIn Curse" is the detrimental side of extensive use of the App.

Because of how rich the engagement is on this platform, it can sometimes be very hard to not keep coming back for more, especially if you’re as active as I am. But what makes LinkedIn great, makes it very bad too. 

At first, I would get notifications for every like, comment, and message. My phone was blowing up and I loved it. I felt relevant, needed, and important. Those feelings are core human desires. 

However, after a month of that, it was clear that the constant prompts were too much - too distracting, and overwhelming.

So, I turned off all notifications except direct messages. This went on for a while and it was much better. 

However, I send, receive and continuously engage in a lot of messages. I love meeting new people, and potentially interacting with them indefinitely. But I would find myself responding to messages instantly, while at work or even driving. Worse, it was messing with my personal life because I wasn't truly being present with family and friends.

So, my message notification had to go. 

At this point, I received no notifications on my phone from LinkedIn - everything had been turned off.

Again, it was great.

But then a whole new problem was born - I found myself blindly checking the app every 15-30mins. 

It was clearly unsustainable since I couldn’t exactly control my urges. 

Thus I took the final decision of deleting the App altogether.

I figured that if I couldn’t muster the willpower to curb a relatively small bad habit and demonstrate discipline, how the heck am I ever going to achieve all the lofty goals I have? 

After one blissful week without the App, I realized couldn't conveniently publish my posts anymore because all my drafts are on my iPhone. I'd have to email it to myself and then copy into LinkedIn on my PC - just too much.

So I redownloaded it.

Then just as I was pondering ways to have the App but limit detrimental usage, Apple announces new features for iOS12 set to be released in the Fall, that tackles unhealthy user habits.

With enhanced Do Not Disturb, customizable notifications and the awesome "Screen Time" that lets me track and limit usage, I'm able to eat my cake and have it too.

Plus create my very own Memoji.

See full iOS12 feature here.