Issue 10: LinkedOut
Girl boss bye-bye
On professional aesthetics: While scrolling through my LinkedIn feed on my iPhone, something I only began doing recently, I received my first sponsored ad for a fashion brand: Akris, a rather architectural-feeling Swiss brand that I have never worn but might wear — in an office, for example. “This is the future-present,” I thought to myself, noting the perfectly-targeted marketing strategy. In terms of my personal interactions with social platforms, LinkedIn (which I first joined back in grad school, circa 2005) has remained an afterthought, a place I pop in and out of momentarily when considering new roles or scoping out a colleague. Unlike the highly visual, image-and-video-driven Instagram or TikTok, LinkedIn has largely maintained its stripped-down design, as if to suggest that looks aren’t what really matters in the realm of work. This old HR adage is patently false of course, as evidenced by the propensity of carefully-staged photos accompanying so many profiles, confidently asserting that a suit or a tie or a buttoned collar renders us all a new, more grown-up version of our Facebook or Instagram or TikTok selves — the people that might express an actual opinion or dance with our dog.
What does “professionality” look like? The performative struggle on LinkedIn is so real, in fact, that a distinct visual language has emerged on the platform: A forever-scroll hellscape of D.I.Y. graphic design steeped in the realm of corporate PowerPoint aesthetics and wellness trends. Political positions are held carefully, softly ensconced in bright pastel colors and system fonts. Affirmations abound, delivered through splashy graphics. Some people tread lightly, gingerly feeling out which self-version to reveal in a space scoured by recruiters and bosses alike, while others clamor for attention via various forms of virtual signaling. (A CEO’s crying selfie, posted to LinkedIn after he laid off workers, elicited a viral backlash in 2022.) As layoffs abound, culture shifts and targeted advertising continue to take hold over the platform, I wonder how long LinkedIn’s relentless positivity will hold — and what it means for the self-conceptualization of those who take themselves Very Seriously there, which is more of us than we’d like to admit.