1/9/25
“Cole Dickerson wants to connect,” reads my most recent notification. It is from LinkedIn. I know who Cole is. I accept the connection. Cole Dickerson and Aden Gutierrez are officially connected.
I have about 40 connections on LinkedIn. My bio reads “Student | Finance Intern | Photographer | Writer.” My profile’s photo is the same as my senior yearbook’s. I am not an avid LinkedIn user; I update my profile with new internships and job positions, but that is the extent of my activity. I exist as a professional entity within LinkedIn’s field of data only for the future. In the future, some possible employers will Google my LinkedIn and browse it.
I do not know why LinkedIn is such a popular professional platform. It is essentially an online resume. Why would a company need my LinkedIn if they have my resume? I understand that connections within the app may be helpful in some capacity, but why does it matter how many people have? I know dozens of people who offer their LinkedIn profiles to people they just meet or advertise their profiles in giant group chats, all for the sake of increasing their connections. What good do connections actually do? According to Reddit, they may benefit you when searching for a job, as you may find one from a mutual connection. This, though, does not convince me to go out of my way to find connections.
I actually have a connection that actively posts on their profile as they would on social media. They write about musical composition and physics; this person is my suitemate, a college freshman. Though, I cannot lie. I enjoy reading their posts, but what purpose do they really serve? Yes, I say this as a person writing on a blog, but blogs are different. They are a place to release creative writing as a more polished form of social media. LinkedIn is not a creative platform; it is a professional one. So, why the sudden LinkedIn propaganda among college students? Whatever the PR team at LinkedIn corporate is doing to feed LinkedIn to young professionals is working exceptionally.
I, however, am not buying into it. I shall remain a LinkedIn skeptic and use it only when absolutely necessary. Consider me a modern Montgomery Bus boycotter.
adengutierrez.com 