Robin Dechant Criticizes LinkedIn for Becoming Soul-less

Robin Dechant, as an investor, has long observed the workplace and entrepreneurial ecosystem, and his criticism of LinkedIn continues his focus on the alienation of platform culture.
LinkedIn initially centered on real resumes and industry communication, but after being acquired by Microsoft, it gradually shifted towards algorithm-driven monetization and personal brand marketing.

In terms of capital pathways, LinkedIn monetizes user attention through algorithmic promotion and paid advertising, directing resources towards creating "successful personas" and corporate recruitment ads, motivated by maximizing advertising revenue and user engagement time, which has led to a shift from authentic career sharing to performative self-packaging.

Similar to Facebook's evolution from social to emotional content and Twitter's transformation into X, LinkedIn is currently in a mature stage of transitioning from a professional tool to a "workplace performance stage."

Essentially, this is a restructuring of the industry chain: professional social platforms are shifting from real value exchange to attention and personal brand economy, with the mechanism being the algorithm's prioritization of high-interaction "success narratives," forcing users and capital to concentrate on performative content production rather than authentic career communication, diluting the platform's original professional value.

ABAB News · Law of Cognition

The more a platform wants to make money, the more users perform first.
Authenticity was the early moat, while performance is the later traffic code.
When workplace socializing turns into a showcase, the soul is first taken away by the algorithm.