LinkedIn is not Facebook

Pause for a second before hitting that Post or Share button on LinkedIn, because, what you are about share might do more harm than good to your authority on the go-to-site for building professional relationships. Professionals like you and me turn to LinkedIn to build professional network, look for potential opportunities, and enhance professional growth. It’s a one stop destination for all this educational and professional. But lately, the quality of posts, comments, and articles have plummeted significantly.

LinkedIn is becoming a casual landscape where people are free to post anything, no matter professional or not. Simply put, LinkedIn is slowly morphing into a social media platform for people to hang out, chat, and share irrelevant content of all sorts. There is a major disconnect in the objective of the platform and the expectations and ideas of some users out there.

With so much content out there, it’s always tempting to share most of them. But remember that the rules are different on a professional networking platform and breaking them will definitely infuriate your audience. Some of the faux pas aren’t really bad, but some others can leave permanent damages on your online reputation and professional aspirations.

On most of the days, our LinkedIn feeds are loaded with a whole lot of posts that should land on a Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus page. From personal posts, random quotes, irrelevant images and memes, birthday and anniversary wishes, to requests to contribute for charity programs, the line between 'social networking' and 'professional networking' is blurring. Some LinkedIn users bitterly fail to pull in the reins on the amount of content they share, and often run the risk of looking like spammers. Some others even overlook the danger of sharing sensitive information to hundreds of strangers and many more from extended network. A sizable number of users post numerous profanities and leave us baffled. A lot of articles and group posts are self-congratulatory and mindless link building exercises that add no value.

With millions of users from all over the world, it’s not easy to stand out on a platform like LinkedIn. If you intend to network professionally, refrain from sharing inspirational quotes, cartoons, memes, selfies, or controversial posts. Instead, upload them onto Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and you’ll get thousands of ‘likes’. If you can sell through knowledge and add value, there is nothing wrong in promoting and marketing a product or a service on LinkedIn,. But incessant number of meaningless, manipulative, and sales-y posts as status updates will hurt trust and ruin reputation of a person/company/brand.

Every online platform has its own identity and purpose. The next time you plan to share something on LinkedIn, take a step back and think twice whether you have something really insightful for your LinkedIn connections. Remember why you joined the platform in the first place – it wasn’t to share random low-quality content and get your reputation tarnished.

A cringe-fest

Indian TV shows have had some of the most ridiculous plots by far. Titular characters turned into chudails nevlas, makkhis, daayans, and even ichchadhari naagins on various TV shows, taking audience to a whole new level in suspension of disbelief every time. But, Indian television has now hit a new low with the making of a show on the crass love story and supposedly unique bond of a 9-year-old boy and an 18-year old woman.

Major backlash arose right after the launch of its promo which shows a prepubescent boy putting vermilion on his adult wife’s head. The episodes are much worse and awful than the promo. It features a mismatched couple, an 18-year-old woman and her nine-year-old husband, and narrates the story their so-called unusual relationship. To shock us further, it is a consensual marriage.

The much younger husband is totally besotted with the young woman. He is seen stalking and photographing his future wife. He rescues her from cockroach, proposes for marriage, gets married, celebrates suhaag raat, and is even gets ready to go on a honeymoon with her. Isn't it cringeworthy? It’s almost Lolitha in reverse.  However, the makers have the weirdest reason for portraying the strange relationship – The child prince has to be protected by a bodyguard, the reason why the 18-year old, who has always longed to marry a prince, agrees to marry the 9-year-old prince.  Looks like the makers are yet to hear about Raksha Bandhan. Or, portraying her as a expert bodyguard too would have been an acceptable alternative. A woman who walks in heavy and ornate lehengas all the time and who is scared of cockroaches agrees to marry a child to keep him safe. Seriously? She is neither a trained bodyguard or a closet ninja.

Simply put, the show sells stupidity and continues to get a lot of flak for the creepy storyline which is no less than crude, appalling, and downright shameful. The makers of the show are totally unfazed and keep boasting of portraying an unconventional love story, but the fact is, it has the most bizarre plot till date, and is a clear glorification of child marriage.

The show is loaded with double entendres. It is not even adhering to the basics of censoring rules in our country and is still getting lauded as a major breakthrough in TV shows. What if the story was told in reverse? What if an adult man was shown marrying a 9-year-old girl? The entire team would have definitely faced a whole lot of hullaballoo, mass boycotting, and even legal hurdles. So, why doesn't the same apply to the present situation?

Fun Fact - In a few months, there would be a time leap, as always, and the boy would reach a consensual age to woo and seduce his much-older ‘wife’. A love-triangle is a close-second possibility.

The possible subtle reason behind the awkward storyline - Any publicity is good publicity and there's no such thing as bad publicity. The makers will go on displaying go on displaying gross, regressive, and indigestible content to raise more eyebrows and get more viewers with peanut sized brains.