Congratulations on your twenty-oneth LinkedIn anniversary

So, today, I got an unusual "notification" from LikeDin:

"Congratulations on your twenty-oneth LinkedIn anniversary!  Celebrate this milestone by sharing a post of your key insights from past year."

(No, they didn't actually spell out "twenty-oneth"; yes, they do seem to think that "past year" doesn't need an article.)  (GenAI is not yet ready for prime time.)

And then they helpfully listed the "insights" that I had this past year!

(Yes, those were the sum total of the insights.)

Actually, there was a button to show the insights, so here they are:

"[emoji of a bouquet of flowers] [or possibly an ice cream cone: it's hard to tell] Celebrating 21 years on LinkedIn! [emoji of a bouquet of flowers]

"Happy to share my professional journey during the past one year:"

("during the past one year"?)  (GenAI is not yet ready for prime time.)

"My content received 22,759 views!"

So, I am enough of a blabbermouth that I posted enough stuff that almost twenty-three thousand people might have seen one of them, in passing.

"Glad they sparked conversations."

Certainly all of the major ones sparked no conversations at all.  Throw-away jokes sometimes prompted someone else's throw-away comments.

"I've had the privilege of following 67  inspiring individuals"

OK, this is *definitely* not from the past year.  I *may* have followed sixty-seven people in all the time I've been on LinkeDin.  Most of them are friends.  I'm not saying my friends aren't inspiring, but I haven't followed Mother Teresa.

"learning from them, and staying informed on the latest trends."

I definitely do *not* get the latest trends on LinkeDin.

"I connected with 19 amazing professionals that led to exciting opportunities and insights."

Definitely zero opportunities from LinkeDin.  Insights I usually get while out walking.

"Thank you for being a part of my journey!"

I'm not sure that this is supposed to thank LinkeDin, or anyone who happens to find this post.

So, my key insight from this past year?  Social media is a rabbit hole.  If you have an interest in finding out something about a recent event which the news media is, for some reason, not covering, or not covering fast enough, you can probably find out something, but you have to be really disciplined about searching.  But for that you'll want to use Twitter (yes, even still), Bluesky, or Mastodon.  On other social media, if you are looking for insight or opportunities, you will, instead, find that you have wasted three hours of your life which you will never get back, and are still uninspired.

LinkeDin has some interesting people on it (*everywhere* has some interesting people), but is, primarily, a hangout for those whose primary purpose in life is self-promotion.  Check your notifications quickly (most of them are not relevant to you at all), and move on.