The Dark Truth About Social Media

I'm fed up with hearing how you need to make a name for yourself on LinkedIn to find work.?

I might have thought that a while back, but now I see it’s backward. What I needed is community. For a start, social media isn't exactly the safest or most helpful place to ask for help when everyone’s just looking for attention. And most asking on here for help come off sounding desperate or less appealing. Only in our time do you have less of a chance of landing an interview than someone already in a job.

The fact is LinkedIn, like all social media, is just for broadcasting. It's always been about making money and winning, and blah, blah, blah. You can tell me it's a communications platform all you like. But it's nothing of the sort. Social media has never been about doing small acts of kindness or building communities. Social media has always been about attention. Create the most hurtful post - get the widest reach. Here what Sarah Oh writes in Forbes:?

Psychologists at Cambridge University have shown that negative posts garner more engagement than those that are more benign in nature. At the same time, advertisers are conditioned to seek out the largest, most engaged communities as a way to get their messages in front of the greatest numbers. As an unintended consequence, platforms are often incentivized to look the other way when things get hateful: anger, hate and abuse fuel the engagement metrics that advertisers want.

On the other hand (community), doing something charitable for each other can be misleading because the hardest part of giving is giving without expecting anything.?

The second hardest lesson to that is repeating it.

Meaningful change isn’t about virtue signalling anymore than shaming someone because they sent you a message you didn’t like. Yet, some still post whatever the crap they talk about for a bit of virtual signalling isn't how the issue gets fixed. Yer, sure you get a few likes. Again. Attention seeking and avoid the ugly truth. The stigma that people can be horrible to each other when greedy intention is the norm.?

We're not given these tools to gaslight or strawman each other, yet that’s what the system (attention/appeal/boast/virtual signalling/FOMO) wants us to lead with. That’s what the 'Engagement' label does. Sadly.

What most need is to restore faith in having those real dialogues, controversial topics, open discussions, critical thinking without judgement or fear or closed-off scepticism, and too high on your affirmation biases. That's a community I'm in for. Not this so-called engagement mess.?

So today, do something different: help a lesser-known person trying to find work. Skip the cheeky “what the guru said” post. Or maybe you don’t, but consider giving someone you don’t know—and who needs to be seen—a comment or like without expecting anything in return. That isn’t too much to ask of yourself when you spend most of the day here.