How Did LinkedIn Become the Internet's Premier Theater of Cringe?

Photo: Mohamed Hassan/Pixabay

In the day, LinkedIn was a buttoned-up platform for industry folks to flash their polished resumes and drop names of fancy business schools. Fast forward, and it's now where you can learn about Jane from Accounting's profoundly emotional journey with her office plant. So how did we get here?

Ah, the early 2000s! It was a time when LinkedIn was the place to wave your professional flag, ask your ex-bosses for recommendations, and silently judge classmates for their job titles. It was more straightforward, unassuming, and, most importantly, free of viral melodrama.

LinkedIn probably felt left out watching Instagram and Twitter spawn their influencers, so it thought, "Why not here?" And so began the era of influencers spewing endless tales of corporate bravery, profound coffee break revelations, and ‘innovative’ PowerPoint techniques. Bless them!

The one behind the scenes, pulling all the strings. Rewarding posts with quick reactions meant content now ranged from tear-jerking stories of personal resilience (read: "I spilled coffee but still nailed the presentation!") to the kind of motivational advice even a fortune cookie would find shallow.

Remember that touching story of a CEO hiring someone despite their mismatched socks, teaching us all a profound lesson about... socks? Now imagine that story retold a gazillion times, with slight variations. That's your LinkedIn feed, folks. Groundbreaking, I know.

At this point, some knights in shining armour called out the insincere. But soon, even their posts began to reek of, dare I say, opportunistic authenticity. Yep, that's a thing now.

These days, scrolling through LinkedIn is akin to watching a reality show where everyone is convinced they're the main character. The dramatic pauses, the rehearsed candidness, and the subtle (or not-so-subtle) humblebrags are art.

While LinkedIn still somewhat serves its original purpose (somewhere beneath the layers of theatrics), it has also gifted the internet with a treasure trove of cringeworthy content. So here’s to many more unsolicited life lessons and cringy anecdotes from the corporate battlefield.