Is LinkedIn still a platform for expanding professional Network?

As a matter of fact, I joined LinkedIn somewhere in 2016 when I was contemplating my move from Military and join the Civil Society. During my initial days, I was totally immersed in the content available on LinkedIn like articles on how to enrich professional network to LinkedIn jobs and the Learning portal. I was so engrossed in the platform that I got enrolled in many learning courses and completed them and it used to be a daily pastime before I go to bed every day.

I was able to expand my network as well as improve my knowledge about the way the civil society functions, and also got immense benefits from the platform in form of references and job opportunities.

My journey through LinkedIn carried on till somewhere in 2021 and slowly I found my interest in the platform started diminishing.

These days I rarely visit LinkedIn, see or update my profile. So what happened in last 7 years that is making me averse to LinkedIn? The reason is very straight forward. These days as you open the page, immediately you will find political messages or narratives or some article on religion which makes you to leave the platform immediately.

These days I find very few articles on professional excellence, even though you are subscribed to professional pages. Most alarmingly, you will find polarizing opinions on every aspect of the society making it like a battle ground for spreading narratives.

So, sometimes I feel LinkedIn is fast becoming like a 'FB' or 'X' for professionals to vent out their valuable opinions on non-professional aspects. I don't want to elaborate further on this but what pains me more is that a beautiful space is getting wasted in circulating political agendas and narratives.

I strongly feel, LinkedIn should have a policy to avoid such posts/articles which are not related to professional network. May be LinkedIn management can look into this aspect to strengthen the networking platform more robust and purposeful for the fraternity who are really interested in enriching their professional experience and be a torch bearer to next generations of professionals.