The morning after the Oscars, Twitter was aflutter with takes on The Slap: Will Smith striking Chris Rock for a misguided joke in which Rock compared Jada Pinkett Smith’s shorn hair to GI Jane (Pinkett Smith, Smith’s wife, has alopecia). While writers, comedians, and the aspiringly viral duked it out for worst opinion, one wry aphorism cut through the chatter: “LinkedIn today is gonna be like ‘here’s what the Will Smith slap can teach us about thought leadership,’” tweeted Sam Rudykoff, a Toronto-based copywriter. The tweet worked because it came true; LinkedIn feeds everywhere were flooded with missives about what professional-development opportunities could be derived from Smith’s behaviour. Some preached the importance of anger management on the job. Others made the remarkable leap of linking the incident back to conflict resolution in real estate disputes.
To any of LinkedIn’s 830 million users, Rudykoff’s tweet captures how the rush to chime in on trending topics and the pressure to always be posting content, specifically personal thoughts and opinions, has transformed the networking site into a professional confessional. After Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, in 2016, the site underwent a redesign such that it now resembles Facebook, with newsfeeds, direct messaging, and trending topics. In 2019, the company introduced livestreaming. It also flirted with ephemeral content, introducing Stories in fall 2020. The feature was similar to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat tools where posted videos disappear after a set time, though that was phased out roughly a year later. And, in March 2021, LinkedIn launched creator mode, a suite of features to help ordinary users publish more content and grow their follower base. These changes helped transform the site from a staid social-networking platform for white-collar workers and the recruiters who court them into more of a content platform, where personal milestones, cultural events, and current affairs are refracted through the lens of professional development.
