LinkedIn started as a simple professional networking tool – a space to connect, share insights, and advance careers. However, today, it has evolved into something much more complex: a digital battlefield for validation, a breeding ground for comparison, and a platform that fuels the illusion that constant achievement equals success.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re not good enough, not achieving enough, or constantly behind, you’re not alone. LinkedIn can be useful, but it also comes with hidden dangers such as fake career gurus, the pressure to always be “on,” and the myth that more degrees, more certifications, and more connections will automatically lead to opportunities.

One of the most frustrating trends on LinkedIn is the rise of self-proclaimed career gurus – the people who brand themselves as leadership, personal branding, or success coaches, despite lacking real-world experience or credentials.

These so-called “experts” thrive on engagement, not expertise. They share vague motivational posts, make exaggerated claims about their careers, and sell the idea that success is just a mindset away – if only you read their posts, follow their advice, or buy their services.

The problem? They rarely offer actionable, real-world strategies. Instead, they push an unrealistic and often toxic narrative that suggests if you’re not wildly successful yet, you simply aren’t working hard enough.

It is a validation tool!

LinkedIn has become a career highlight reel, where people carefully curate their professional lives to showcase only the best moments – their promotions, new jobs, degrees, speaking engagements, and awards. While celebrating achievements is great, this constant flood of success stories fuels a dangerous comparison culture.

Scrolling through LinkedIn can make you feel like you’re falling behind, even if you’re doing just fine. It can lead to:

• Imposter syndrome (“Why am I not as successful as everyone else?”)

• Unrealistic expectations (“I should be achieving more by now.”)

• Anxiety and burnout from feeling like you constantly need to do more.

What many forget is that LinkedIn is not real life. People rarely post the truth about their struggles, failures, or career setbacks. Yet, we compare our messy realities to their polished successes, leading to crippling self-doubt.

One of the biggest illusions LinkedIn sells is that the more you achieve, the more doors will open for you. This fuels a culture where people obsessively chase more degrees, certifications, and credentials and they often do so without a clear strategy.

Yes, education is valuable, but it doesn’t guarantee success. Many professionals assume that if they just earn one more certification or get one more degree, their dream job will magically appear. In reality:

• Employers value experience, problem-solving skills, and relationships just as much, if not more, than academic achievements.

• Some people accumulate degrees but lack the ability to market themselves or build the right network.

• Career growth isn’t always linear; sometimes, the best opportunities come from unexpected places, not from another certificate on your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn, like any social media platform, is designed to keep users engaged. It feeds you an endless stream of posts, job updates, and unsolicited career advice, making it easy to lose hours mindlessly scrolling instead of actually building meaningful connections.

Instead of engaging in purposeful networking, many professionals get trapped in passive consumption, where they read post after post without taking any meaningful action. This creates a false sense of productivity while, in reality, you’re just consuming noise.

LinkedIn promotes the idea that to stay relevant, you need to constantly be posting, networking, and engaging. There’s an unspoken rule that if you’re not regularly updating your profile or sharing insights, you’re invisible.

But this pressure is exhausting and often unnecessary. Not everyone needs to be a thought leader. Not every professional milestone needs to be broadcasted. Taking breaks or moving at your own pace doesn’t mean you’re falling behind.

If you’re spending more time crafting LinkedIn posts than actually growing in your career, it might be time to reassess how you use the platform.

For job seekers, LinkedIn can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it provides access to thousands of job postings. On the other hand, it can create decision fatigue and FOMO (fear of missing out), making you constantly question if there’s a better opportunity out there.

Seeing others announce their career moves can trigger self-doubt, leading to an endless cycle of comparison, job-hopping anxiety, and frustration. Instead of chasing job postings mindlessly, it’s better to focus on strategic networking and meaningful career growth.

While LinkedIn makes it easy to add connections, many of these relationships are shallow and transactional. Accepting a request doesn’t mean you’ve built a real professional relationship. A strong network is built through genuine interactions, mentorship, and meaningful conversations, and not just by collecting contacts like digital trophies.

So what can you do?

If LinkedIn is causing more stress than benefit, here’s how to take back control:

1. Unfollow the noise. Mute or unfollow people whose posts trigger self-doubt or comparison. Curate your feed so it adds value, not stress.

2. Stop chasing achievements for the sake of it. Before enrolling in another course or certification, ask yourself: “Do I actually need this, or do I just feel pressured to have it?”

3. Engage with purpose, not pressure. Use LinkedIn intentionally, whether it’s to build relationships, learn from industry experts, or find new opportunities – rather than out of habit or fear of missing out.

4. Take breaks. A LinkedIn detox can help you gain perspective. Log out for a week or two and see how it affects your mindset.

5. Remember that success is personal. Define success on your own terms, not based on what the algorithm rewards or what other people are posting.

LinkedIn can be an incredible tool, but only if you control it, not the other way around. The pressure to constantly achieve, to be seen as successful, and to keep up with an illusion of endless progress can be overwhelming. Real success isn’t measured by likes, certifications, or viral posts – it’s about meaningful work, personal fulfillment, and creating a career that aligns with your values.

So the next time you find yourself scrolling LinkedIn and feeling like you’re not doing enough, take a step back and ask yourself: Am I chasing success for myself, or for the illusion of success that LinkedIn wants me to believe in?