LinkedIn Lamentations

Lately, I seem to be getting a lot of connection requests on LinkedIn from people I don’t know (haven’t met, emailed or interacted with in any way that I can remember^*). I generally don’t connect with people on LinkedIn unless I’ve met them in person and worked with them a bit (or at least substantially interacted with them online), but that’s just me. Some people try to connect with as many people as possible, thinking this is somehow ‘networking’. Maybe if I were a recruiter I’d try to acquire as many contacts as possible, but as it is these strangers would just clog up my LinkedIn stream. So I press the ‘ignore’ button. A lot. It makes me feel a little guilty – kind of like slamming the door in someone’s face. But these people aren’t even trying. They aren’t introducing themselves or saying why they’d like to connect with me. Just a message that essentially says “Hi, you don’t know me, but please click this button.”

And while I’m being cranky about newfangled social media, what’s up with Facebook not letting me follow a link to an interesting article without giving them permission to tell everyone on the planet^** what I’m reading.  I’m not interested in telling you about that and you shouldn’t be so interested in what I’m reading. What’s wrong with you, anyway?

So, back to LinkedIn. If you want to connect (and I don’t already know you), just tell me who you are and what you’re looking for. Despite what my friends say, I’m pretty nice and I might just help you out.

^*I am much older than my 41 years suggests, so perhaps it’s just dementia. If so, please just ignore this post. Who stole my socks?! It’s cold in here. I like pizza.

^**Yeah, that’s right. I’m selective about LinkedIn, but on Facebook I’ve friended everyone on the planet.