6  Taking Care of Yourself

LinkedIn can be useful but it can also be a time sink, a source of unflattering comparison, and occasionally unpleasant. This chapter covers how to use it without making yourself miserable.

6.1 Managing Your Time

LinkedIn is designed to keep you scrolling with infinite feeds, notifications, and the variable reward of engagement. Set boundaries by checking LinkedIn at specific times rather than whenever you are bored and turn off most notifications (you already did this in Chapter 2, right?). You can also delete the app from your phone periodically if you find yourself checking it constantly.

Whilst mindful that in Chapter 3 I messaged that building a LinkedIn profile takes time and sustained effort, remember that time spent on LinkedIn is time not spent on other things. A couple of posts a week and some genuine engagement is plenty, you do not need to be constantly present.

6.2 Dealing with Comparison

LinkedIn is a highlight reel. People post their successes, awards, publications, promotions. They are much less likely to post their rejections, failures, or struggles and even when they do, it’s dressed up as a motivational post.

This creates a distorted picture where everyone else appears to be succeeding constantly while you experience the full range of academic life including the boring and difficult parts. This is not real. Research consistently shows that exposure to curated portrayals on social media is associated with lower self-esteem, particularly when we engage in “upward social comparisons” - comparing ourselves to people who appear to be doing better than us (Vogel et al., 2014). When you notice yourself feeling inadequate because of what you see on LinkedIn, remember that you are comparing your behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel. It is not a fair comparison and it is not useful.

If particular accounts make you feel bad about yourself, mute or unfollow them. You do not owe anyone your attention.

6.3 Annoying Content

LinkedIn will show you content you find irritating. Performative positivity, humble-brags, AI-generated slop, takes you disagree with.

Mute people. If someone’s content annoys you but you do not want to unfollow (maybe they are a colleague), mute them. They will not know, and you will not see their posts.

Mute keywords. You can mute specific words or phrases. If there is a trending topic driving you mad, mute it.

Curate your feed. The more you engage with content you actually like, the more LinkedIn shows you similar content. Engage with what you find valuable and scroll past what you do not.

Remember you can leave. You do not have to be on LinkedIn. If the platform consistently makes you unhappy, leaving is a valid option.

6.4 Handling Difficult Interactions

Most interactions on LinkedIn are fine but occasionally, someone will be rude, dismissive, or hostile.

You do not have to respond. Engaging with bad-faith actors rarely improves anything. You can ignore comments, delete them from your posts, or block the person.

Delete and move on. You can delete any comment on your own posts. There is no obligation to leave hostile comments visible.

Block freely. If someone is problematic, block them (see Chapter 2 for how blocking works). You do not owe anyone access to your content.

Report if necessary. If content violates LinkedIn’s policies, report it. Do not expect rapid response.

Be the person you want to interact with. The internet is full of idiots regardless of what you do, but it’s also worth reflecting on whether you’re getting negativity because that’s what you’re putting out there. To the surprise of most people who know me in person (I have a bit of a temper) I get very little in the way of negativity despite the amount of time I spend on social media and I think this is partially attributable to the fact that I don’t usually invite it and when it does arrive, I don’t engage with it. What I am not doing here is victim blaming and particularly if you are a minority then this negativity absolutely comes your way regardless of your conduct. But it’s still worth mentioning.

6.5 The Bigger Picture

LinkedIn is a tool which can be useful for networking, sharing work, building reputation. It is not essential and many (most?) successful academics do not use it at all.

If LinkedIn serves your professional goals and does not damage your wellbeing, great. Use it. If it makes you miserable, takes too much time, or does not actually help you achieve anything meaningful, stop.