I closed my LinkedIn account.

After 16 years, I have decided to close my LinkedIn account and I will explain why.

LinkedIn. The ‘professional’ social network

The LinkedIn website's home page states: ‘Welcome to your professional community.’

Among the various possibilities offered by LinkedIn, it explains who it can be useful for:

Here are some slogans found on the LinkedIn website, quoted verbatim:

• Connect with people who can help you. Find people you know.
• Acquire the skills you need to advance your career.
• Connect with colleagues, classmates and friends on LinkedIn.
• Let the right people know you're available for work.
• With the ‘Open to Work’ feature, you can privately let recruiters know or publicly share with the LinkedIn community that you're looking for new job opportunities.
• Keep your mind sharp with games. Take a break and reconnect with your network through quick daily games.
• Discover the best software tools. Connect with buyers who have first-hand experience to find the best products for you.
• Present your job offer to millions of people. Find the right job or internship for you.

So, from what can be read on the official site, it seems to be a very interesting platform and above all "Professional".

Reasons for the choice

I list some of the reasons for my choice to leave LinkedIn.

It's free, but it's never really free.

As everything that seems free (like Google, Meta [Facebook, Instagram], and X) is never truly free; these giants earn substantial profits not from their free users, but through utilizing and selling their data or offering paid services.

Bought by Microsoft in June 2016 for $26 billion.

To be honest, it has been "left alone" for some time now, but now we're starting to see the effects of ownership...

Not very "professional" posts.

I have noticed, and it's growing continuously, the presence of posts that aren't very "professional", where, for example, daily events, wars, opinions for and against, gossip about politicians and other figures, articles from various newspapers covering pink/gray/black/green news, propaganda articles, and so on are mentioned. In short, what can be said, LinkedIn increasingly resembles Facebook!

Update to the license agreement and privacy policy.

I received an email on October 9, 2024 from LinkedIn with information about updates to the license agreeement and privacy policy, made necessary following the implementation and use of *generative AI* or, as I jokingly call it, *DeGenerative AI*. You can find here the FAQs related to LinkedIn and Generative AI.

Sponsored contents and videos.

I've noticed that for some days now, first by clicking on photos of a post and scrolling down, and now also among regular posts, there appear some video contents with strange and not quite "professional" materials.

In conclusion. Did I do well? Did I do wrong?

On one hand, I'm a bit sad having had over 500 contacts and more than 600 followers on my personal account, and almost 150 followers on my professional page, but ultimately, I believe I made the right choice.

LinkedIn offers the possibility to reactivate the account within 48 hours via a link or within 14 days by logging back in again.

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