Friday, June 12, 2026

How LinkedIn Turned Professional Networking into Cringe Soul-Crushing Theater

In this sharp takedown, Moon scrolls through the absurdity of LinkedIn — from CEOs posting tearful selfies after mass layoffs and using funeral photos for "motivational" content, to influencers bragging about age discrimination, salary haggling, and closing deals in underwear. The platform has evolved into a bizarre mix of oversharing, corporate fan fiction, and engagement farming that rewards performative lunacy over real merit. Beyond the cringe, it fails at its core purpose: helping people find jobs, with ghost listings, AI interviewers, data harvesting, stale postings that are often pre-filled internally, and advice that boils down to "be pro you" while young grads apply to thousands of roles with little success. LinkedIn profits massively from recruiters, ads, and premiums while fostering addiction and disillusionment.