May. Perhaps one of the most exciting months of the year. For university aged students, summer is on the horizon, and there is an air of hope and anticipation as graduation photos saturate your feed. Students go from posting blurry evidence of day drinking endeavors to sharing their grad school acceptances and grown up jobs. And those who are yet to graduate begin to boast about internships and apprenticeships, the signs of getting one step closer to the precipice of adulthood. 

And every May, like clockwork, Linked In becomes the place to simultaneously share your exciting professional development, and hopefully make more. 

Not unlike a dating app, Linked In is one of the many apps that has historically made in-person tasks easier by making connections possible through a phone screen. The addictive networking space allows you to update your resume and endlessly meet new people in the industry of your dreams, and the never ending realm of possible people parallel the infinite options one has on Tinder or Hinge—users can find themselves endlessly looking through profiles, hoping one of them will offer you everything you hoped for and more.

(Or, at the very least, something to stay busy while you wait for the “one”). 

The popularity of Linked In is not unjustified by any means. The opportunity to network via your cell phone means there is a relative new ease to networking. In many ways this bridges the gaps that previously prevented people from prestigious white collar office jobs. Opportunities that led to corner officers were once reserved for inner circles and family friends—but now, you can breach these spheres with the click of a button. In many ways, Linked In is a beacon of hope for the young. A chance to be seen, be validated, and be offered a doorway that could lead to financial security, success, stability and quite possibly, a future. 

And yet, one cannot help but notice the negative aspects that come along with making professional development an app.

Because like all forms of social media, Linked In inevitably results in overexposure of other’s best moments—their highlight reel. For university-aged students, being on the app means constant reminders that others are achieving professional success. And whether we choose to admit it or not, this leads to self doubt and insecurity. 

I appreciate the ease of networking that Linked In makes possible. Yet, it would be incredibly naive to not openly acknowledge what the app promotes. It is centered around professional development, so amongst those who are in the endlessly confusing and consistently uncertain era of their early twenties, the app is bound to cause imposter syndrome and insecurity. However, one can easily tackle this by posting their own accomplishments—so you share every job updated, every organization position. Only to be met by the more impressive accomplishments of that one student in your class you worked with once. And the comparison trap is not only inevitable but a self-serving cycle. Your own fear of falling behind or not being as prosperous in your achievements results in you pushing your own accomplishments in the face of peers who feel equally as self-conscious and forced to retaliate. Simply because Linked In is not as frivolous or creatively utilized as Instagram or Tik Tok, does not mean that it is not privy to the flaws of social media— it feeds off of its creation of insecurity. And it only continues to exist if we fall victim to this self-doubt.

And so Linked In is ultimately responsible for feeding into the toxic and anxiety inducing phenomena of hustle culture. Whether it be through the hard working yet ultra-feminine existence of “girl bosses” that you find on your For You Page or through the frequent emergence of young entrepreneurs making millions before the age of 30, hustle culture has found ways to penetrate the daily lives of young people. And while it can be incredibly inspiring, at the core of the motivational quotes and internship tips and tricks is the idea that overworking yourself is actually just dedication. The Pinterest boards that make internships appear aesthetically pleasing and the Instagram gurus that share their “Work from home” romanticize the incredible hard work, adversity, and struggle that comes along with a career path. The emotional and physical exhaustion of our capitalist surroundings are glamorized, and as a result, we are tricked into thinking this is a lifestyle we want. Especially when one considers how popular the app is among young adults just barely able to enter the world of corporate North America. 

The prominence of Linked In feels especially suffocating in university spheres as young adults attempt to crawl their way into professional spaces, which is upsetting when this generation of young adults is already more prone to anxiety due to the ongoing state of the world. The incoming recession, the climate crisis, racial tensions, and an aging population have caused this generation to feel an insurmountable amount of pressure to do better than the adults before us. And so hustle culture is in many ways ingrained in us as we hope to do it all—to make enough money to live in the large expensive cities with limited rental opportunities, to change companies’ environmental policies, to hire more equitably, and to ultimately do better. This generation is riddled with anxiety, and being overexposed to others accomplishment only adds to their never-ending list of goals. And so, they become susceptible to join any unpaid opportunity or apply to a job that resides outside their passion in order to contribute.  

Another issue that emerges with the rising prominence of Linked In is the question of whether or not the encouragement of young people to join this app is causing a sense of dehumanization. This is particularly more present in the white-collar office opportunities run by big firms who will ultimately benefit from these unpaid interns, eager to please. Is joining Linked In and attempting to find connections with people with the sole purpose of adding to your resume commodifying the human experience? And is this experience shoveling the young generation into the 9-5 before they have even left undergrad? What opportunities are actually fulfilling, and which are just taken up to fulfill our desperate need to impress others? These questions boil down to the same moral dilemmas that circle this article. The closeness and ease of the app makes the pressures of the workforce inescapable. You are no longer a complex human who has room to grow but a profile with listed accomplishments. And, because it's an app, it is in some sense, addictive to use. 

And so, perhaps the solution is the suggestion of an alternative approach to the often emotionless and transactional experience of networking via an app. Take distance from the incessant need to network via your phone screen and maybe spend that time developing in person connections that, while not currently as impressive, are entirely more genuine and more likely to lead to prosperity in the future. And take space from hustle culture. Yes, it is amazing to be hopping from internship to internship—but burnout at age 25 is definitely not. And it should seem incredibly logical that having real skills and hobbies and interests is all more beneficial than digital connections. 

Linked In is a great way to begin thinking about your future. It is a tool that makes networking way less awkward and entirely more efficient. But when you find yourself facing insecurity as you scroll through other accomplishments and feel overwhelmed by the pressure to beef up your profile, it is important to recall that you can only control your reaction to things. And just like all social media apps (now that we are hopefully in unanimous agreement that while arguably more boring Linked In is social media molded around a 9-5 and the world of business casual)…you can control how you consume the content you see before you. Sadly, these apps pushing us into the workforce and world of professional networking early are able to thrive off of our insecurity of not having a long enough CV as our peers. But your CV is only a page of your skills (whether that be physical or in the case of the app being criticized, digital). You are much more than—and perhaps the experiences are more valuable for what they taught you than the fact that they can attract “connections.

 Linked In is at the end of the day, just an app - the hustle is admirable, but if need be, turn your notifications off.

Header Illustration: Sadie Levine