LinkedIn losing ‘professional’ sheen?

LinkedIn is not for those who are not ambitious, or at least not for those who are looking for entertainment online. It is a network where the connections are made based on the credits and qualifications and not based on your looks or momentarily expressions. The world’s largest professional network, launched in May 2003, now boasts of over 300 million members from over 200 countries.

Though LinkedIn devotees argue how empowering this tool can be, particularly to young employees and women, a recent incident has raised questions over the claims. A 27-year-old human rights lawyer Charlotte Proudman posted a screen grab of a lecherous message dropped by an older, married lawyer Alexander Carter-Silk last week, sparking off the discussion whether the professional network has become yet another social networking platform such as Facebook, Twitter and even Tinder for that matter.

Declared as the most advantageous social networking tool available to job-seekers and business professionals today by Forbes, it is said that LinkedIn, with the profiles of so many young, ambitious and image-savvy women, has led to an unwanted side-effect: men trawling the site, sending solicitous messages, all under the respectable, besuited guise of “professional networking”.

For women on the receiving end, this has been a bitter pill to swallow. The LinkedIn sold itself on the promise of new-generation networking, a level-playing field and an opportunity for ambitious professionals regardless of race, gender or geographical location.

The trouble is that humans often behave worse online than in person. Online behaviour encourages a process psychologists call de-individuation, where people indulge in behaviour that is more extreme, impulsive and unrestrained than normal.

But LinkedIn is pledging to tackle that. “The online world has no shortage of places for people looking for dates; and if someone insists on trying, we have tools in place to block them and even remove them from the site,” spokesman Darain Faraz has been quoted as saying.

It’s reported that LinkedIn will remain focused on helping professionals create a strong profile, find new career opportunities and use the online network to their advantage.