Deleting LinkedIn and Other "Radical" Thoughts

I closed my LinkedIn account recently. It may sound shocking to noobs trying to get a first job all bushy eyed out of college and full of beans. I myself believed it too and I can’t say it was all a waste. Starting off, you have to fill out a certain image in order to get your foot in the door, especially when you don’t have much else to show. Stay scrappy, but stay open minded also.

Everyone’s like, “You must have LinkedIn! These top 5 things must show on your profile or nobody will interview you!” Doubt all hysterical thinking or advice. In my estimation, LinkedIn is a walled garden version of a professional profile, with a built-in messaging system that is mostly used for spamming.

There are a ton of alternatives to having a public portfolio without a massive pipeline on the backend collecting your data. Believe it or not, using alternative services, even if it’s a wysiwyg site creator, makes you stand out more. You’ve already stood out from a majority of other candidates if you don’t rely on only a LinkedIn profile with an “expert” badge (which, let’s be honest, is really a game theory applied to making people fill out the most data on their profiles so that it can be collected).

Social Media: A Failed Social Experiment

When everyone and their brother is given an html textarea to spam their thoughts every waking moment, I’ve started to realize that my relations with people aren’t much different than the real world.

(Sidenote: LinkedIn probably solidified my belief because the people who bother to post there are the insufferable "entrepreneural" folks. Nobody was talking about getting real things done or new ideas.)

That is, I don’t really care for 95% of my “friends” or “connections” opinions. I’m doing a true service by merely not saying anything and tolerating the constant stream of opinions. Social media makes it harder to filter opinions because literally everyone has the power to spam that textarea and you have no control over what shows in your feed.

What I’ve come to realize is that it is much more important for everyone to become very discerning about who is allowed to rent headspace or even waste 30 seconds of your life. A bunch of 30 seconds here and there add up. The feed is a great way to let people rent headspace, so why subject yourself to it? Your peace of mind is spread over the world in small ripples. Take back your peace of mind so that the tide is turned toward less anger on the global scale.

I’m partly labeled as “introverted” because I’ve become so pessimistic of the verbal diarrhea that has become America. Talking has become an obsession and most people talk way too long.

Tolerance is a good starting basis for relations. I’ve only got so much to give, so I’d rather not open myself up to people whom I’d probably ignore in real life also.

The Delusion Must be Smashed

The most amusing part is that when I was closing the account, LinkedIn seemed to be under the impression that I was required to fill out a reason for closing the account. I clicked the “Other” option just to be done with it. Then a text box showed up asking me to describe why in detail.

This is a great sign that a walled garden believes that it’s much more important than it is. When a social media site is delusion enough to think that someone else won’t just build another CRUD app along the same lines, they are on the wrong path. Freedom will reign. Better ideas and better creations must win out. Don’t hold back the tide.