Are you frequently using LinkedIn? Be aware of this:

LinkedIn is a coin with 2 sides.

One golden side that creates possibilities.

One dark side that threatens your self-worth.

It's unnecessary to sing a hymn of praise on the possibilities of LinkedIn here. We all know them - otherwise, we wouldn't be here.

So let me instead iterate the other side of the coin.

Because like all Social Media platforms, LinkedIn has its unique dangers:

1️⃣ Comparison

Damn, there are some pretty impressive people here on LinkedIn:

- 18yo founders

- 18yo college dropouts

- 5 am club productivity gurus

- 6 pm anti hustlers and flow gurus

- multimillion-dollar serial entrepreneurs

- multi-country digital nomads in campervans

As if this wouldn't already be enough:

Because of Copywriting and Personal Branding, their bios sound like scripts out of a g*ddamn Hollywood movie!

In direct comparison, your own life seems like 50 shades of muddy gray-brown daily life and underachievement.

It's partly because of how our human mind works:

When we compare ourselves with others, we tend to compare ourselves with their desirable attributes - magnified on a LinkedIn scale.

We cherry-pick one achievement of their life, forget about all their flaws (which often we can't see) and lay it against our own.

💬 If Instagram is THE platform to make you feel sad about your life,

LinkedIn is THE platform to make you feel miserable about your achievements.

2️⃣ Distraction and addiction

Yeah, I know the addiction debate on social media is old.

But here's a weird fact: It's mainly about Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. I've never even seen LinkedIn mentioned in this discussion!

All social media platforms have 1 thing in common: they are designed to catch your attention for as long as possible.

LinkedIn is not different from that. It easily can take you from "I'll just check on it for 5 minutes" to "what the f*** Did I do the last 60min?!"

➡️ I think we can all agree on this:

LinkedIn is AMAZING! It is my favorite social network, and I don't see that changing soon (sorry, Meta, but no).

But let's not forget that there is a downside to it.

I've seen many people wasting multiple hours each day here, arguing that they're being productive because of the "valuable content" (often debatable).

Let's make use of it without being used by it.

I'm preaching what I am just trying to achieve myself.

I get sucked into rabbit holes and toxic comparisons on a daily basis.

But I think it's worth talking about.

How do you feel about the two-sidedness of LinkedIn?

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