Ask HN: Why is everyone so fake on LinkedIn?

Same reason corporate music is bad, it can't have anything meaningful or it wouldn't be work friendly. The message is I'm employable, I signal the current corporate virtues, looks at what all I'm learning, wow Jim it has really been ten years at Saber, wow the years have flown.

Say the wrong thing, canceled, not only from future employment but current.

There is nothing genuine about a corporate business lunch and this is just another location.

> Why so much fake enthusiasm ?

Lack of anonymity. Profiles on LinkedIn have more real information on them then any other platform, meaning that what you say might have real consequences to you.

Basically saying anything negative or critical might be used against you in the future of your career. (see Miranda rights)

Other platforms like reddit and Twitter don't mind anonymous accounts, which ironically invites more honest criticism and discussion, as it doesn't directly link profiles to professional careers.

I see very little on LinkedIn that is outright fake. What I do see is a heavy filter put on people's experiences. But that makes sense to me - this is not a social media site - it is an online resume. Don't get fooled into thinking it is anything more or less just because they have a news feed.

Me in a position of power,

Poor schmuck who's desperate

Me showing pity on the schmuck

Schmuck uses the opportunity

Me showing LinkedIn how great I'm

As long as you don't hide the identity of the users, you won't have an honest platform. You want to see how people really think, give the anonymity and you see the true society, good or bad.

I use it but I use it very specifically in a small set of groups around areas of interest, or to actually prevent people from going overboard on X solution (e.g. coach people to think through requirements instead of just taking any answer to "what's the best product in X software category?" at face value), rather than do product fluffing.

Conversely I used LinkedIn Learning a lot, and I like to follow certain companies of interest, but yes, there is an overabundance of "lookee lookee at my stuff, but I'm not in marketing, really!" kind of discourse.

LinkedIn is cringe levels of shameless self promotion, feel good corporate bs, and spam from recruiters. But it also has gotten me jobs and helped me keep in touch with old colleagues so I tolerate it.

When I mentor interns about how to present or interact in meetings, I always stress that if they are a stakeholder in a project that is discussed, they should be prepared to add something intelligent to a discussion about it.

“Something intelligent” isn’t pithy commentary, it is a contribution that adds some value to what is happening.

In the context of LinkedIn, you’re always selling something. Either yourself, your company/product or something else. Usually that means offering something that makes you look smart or empathetic to stay active in your extended network. Many people are very bad at it.

Personally, I post about the nonprofit organization whose board I serve on. I may get some brownie points, but mostly it’s marketing so I can try to liberate peoples money later to donate to the cause.

Because it's not a community, it's a marketplace. Never confuse the two.

For an eye-opening experience, explore the network of people who list themselves as recruiters for oil companies.

I love LinkedIn because it helps me stay in touch with people who I went to school with and old co-workers as I deleted my Facebook account years ago. If I didn't have LinkedIn, it would have been much harder to stay in touch with those people.

I do think that LinkedIn has a lot of low quality content so I entirely avoid the feed and use it more so as a rolodex and that alone makes it worth it for me.

Because you have to be fake at work, and LinkedIn is basically work.

People are fake on all social media. LinkedIn content is just more narrow and commercial, so that compounds the effect and makes it seem more pronounced.

Well not everyone. There are people who treat it like Facebook and start sharing the funny links and random stuff and in some cases their political opinions and conspiracy theories.

The boring fake alternatives of everyone else are much better.

LinkedIn is basically a marketing channel. For companies' marketing team to market their products, for HR teams to market how "awesome" is to work at the company and for people to market themselves.

I am of the thought that most marketing is bullshit, hence I believe most of what you will read in LinkedIn is bullshit as well.

My question is whether those long posts people make when they change companies are about ego or if it somehow helps their career to make a big deal out of it publicly.

People are fake on linkedln because they are afraid to offend any. All there business clients and employers are on the service. If you want real people are more inclined when they are just a username or anonymous. Something I noticed through the years. Real ID means faker people.

It's because fake enthusiasm is deeply ingrained in corporate culture (at least in the US).

i have found hitting long pressing like and choosing "Insightful" (light bulb emoji) or "Curious" (hmm... emoji) on posts outside of the overton window to be a very fun way to push boundaries on linkedIn while doing nothing reprehensible per say.

if enough of us do this, we can actually extend the overton window outside of the current straightjacket and actually push toward a more free and enjoyable society.

your fellow connections will, over time, be informed of your activity; ("Bob finds this Insightful....")

worst case scenario - they might have to begrudgingly admit you find something insightful or curious that they would rather not think about;

best case scenario we start to normalize free and open discussion in the world's most sterile, bland environment (corporate)

LinkedIn is basically a giant water-cooler where everyone can show-off. That i s the incentive, the network decided to promote.

IMO the worst is middle aged guys walking recording self-help/promotion sales selfie videos.

But what do you expect them to say?

Excited to talk at this upcoming conference --> My company just paid thousands of dollars for me to get on stage and have the audience listen to an informercial.

Excited to be named one this years people who are persons --> I spend all my time working to make partners at a Consultancy/PE/VC Bank rich, but it-least they paid to nominate me, I can show my parents! Do people still read magazines?

Just yesterday someone suggested me to set up a linkedin profile, ensuring a rapid career onset.

I never thought linkedin had any value (beside being a weird phonebook). How is it these days ?

A while back I was in the office at a Fortune 500 company. I was getting in the elevator to go home around 7:00 PM, which is later than I would've liked. A few other people boarded the elevator too, and we exchanged knowing nods and grumbled about late nights, the excessive workload, and bad weather.

The next floor, our CEO got on. Everyone's attitude shifted 180 degrees. We all had smiling, perky, and enthusiastic. I don't subscribe to the deification of our executives, but in that moment, I certainly acted like I did.

Anyway, on LinkedIn, people act like their current or next CEO is reading their posts. Because they might be.

I agree that it's fake, and I find my personal LinkedIn newsfeed to be extremely unpleasant - and more or less useless - to read. But when push comes to shove, the next time I'm around the CEO, I know I'll have the same fake enthusiasm.

It took about a decade for people to learn that expressing yourself candidly online must be done anonymously or in a private space, or there will be negative consequences. I think long-term this will doom facebook (the website), but not meta.