Almost two years ago I deactivated my LinkedIn. Not paused. Not lurking. Gone. I have not missed it for a single day.
I have never received a real opportunity through LinkedIn. The good work in my career has come through people who know me: former clients, colleagues, friends of friends. Conversations, coffee, shipping things together. In Australia especially, our circles are smaller than you think. Reputation travels faster than an algorithmic feed ever will.
LinkedIn today feels like a hivemind of thought leaders and recruitment spam. The feed is a mash‑up of keyword‑stuffed takes, second‑rate memes that started on Facebook, and “look at me” stories tuned for engagement. My inbox was the same: spray‑and‑pray recruiter messages, auto‑follow‑ups, and pitches that had nothing to do with my work. Signal lost to noise.
Maybe it was useful a decade ago. In 2025 it feels like negative ROI for most people. Time spent scrolling is time not spent learning, building, or meeting people in the real world. If a platform does not make me better or connect me to people I trust, it is a distraction.
I actually found myself getting sucked into the endless scroll of content that added little value to my life. The more I engaged with the platform, the more I felt like I was performing for an audience rather than connecting with real people. The time invested into LinkedIn felt like a negative return on time invested.
What I use instead is simple. My own site. Email. GitHub. Events. A quick coffee with someone doing interesting work. Those channels have led to every opportunity that mattered, and they keep me accountable to do good work rather than perform for a feed.
It turns out the real world is not as noisy as LinkedIn. Conversations are deeper, connections are stronger, and opportunities are more genuine. I can focus on what truly matters: building relationships and creating value. Not looking at CEO posts about their latest achievements.
If LinkedIn works for you, great. For me, it became a place that rewarded posturing over practice. Deleting it gave me back attention I now spend on things that compound: relationships, side projects, and learning. I am happier for it.