#5: LinkedIn's New Algorithm Loves Trauma Porn And Influencers
Plus, what our reality TV obsessions say about us.
Laid Off Life is a place of respite for the weary workforce. Whether you’re unemployed, on strike or just trying to make it through the workday, let this be your 5-minute mental break from the grind of late-stage capitalism.
In this weekly newsletter, you’ll find musings and insights about work and life, things I’m finding useful (or useless) in my job search, gems from my DMs, and recs about worthy ways to waste time - from articles to TV shows and podcasts and beyond.
Housekeeping Note: I will be on vacation next week, trying to take a much-needed break from all forms of screen time. Issue #6 of Laid Off Life will be back on Tuesday, September 5th.
LinkedIn's New Algorithm Loves Trauma Porn And Influencers
When I was employed, I was rarely on LinkedIn. It was a place to post open positions I was hiring for, to take a quick look at what my professional contacts were up to, or to research people and companies. When I was laid off earlier this year, my time spent on LinkedIn increased a millionfold. At first, I would scroll through my LinkedIn feed for job ops, search my network for people who might have connections at companies I was applying to, and message colleagues for networking purposes.
And then things got weird…
With the recent shift in LinkedIn’s algorithm, my feed has transformed from helpful to hellish. I started to come away from LinkedIn scrolling sessions feeling anxious, fearful and sometimes physically ill. The platform seemed to be morphing from a professional hub to a funhouse mirror for self-comparison and overstimulation — just like all other social networks. Here are the 3 types of LinkedIn posts that are suddenly in heavy rotation in my feed:
The Layoff Announcement Post: These seemed to spike in my feed coinciding with increased layoffs in the media and tech industries in Q2/Q3, 2023. But I realized this was also the same time that LinkedIn implemented algorithm changes. I don’t take umbrage with the layoff posts themselves — it feels therapeutic for some people to announce their layoff to their network — just the volume of them I’m being served. And I don’t just see layoff announcements from within my immediate network. If anyone in my network commented or liked a layoff post from someone in their network, it now shows up in my feed. It’s a daily barrage of layoff announcements, which automatically send me into a spiral about how my industry is decimated and I will never find a job again. Obviously, not true. While there have been real cutbacks in several industries, LinkedIn’s algorithm is certainly doing its part to amplify layoff fear-mongering.
The Unemployment Trauma Porn Post: Trauma porn is a perverse fascination with other people’s misfortune, and it’s especially rampant on social media. Evoking strong emotions like anger and despair, too much consumption of trauma porn can result in feelings of helplessness and desensitization. That’s how I’ve felt ever since my LinkedIn feed became littered with unemployment trauma porn. These are the posts where people share their utter desperation after applying for 1000+ jobs and getting no responses. Inevitably, they are going to lose their home and not be able to feed their children if someone doesn’t give them a chance. In the meantime, they are starting a lemonade stand, please follow them on Instagram! These also happen to be the posts that get the most CFBR (comments for better reach), which explains why they are a main feature in my feed. It’s worth noting that I only know about 1% of these people personally because of LinkedIn’s commitment to expanding reach and influence beyond your immediate connections. The desolation that these missives evoke is real. The gripping fear that this fate may befall you as well is real. The eventual desensitization to this glut of desperation is also real. At a certain point, you no longer rubberneck to see the car crash.
The LinkedInfluencer Post. These days, LinkedIn seems to thrive on binaries. You’re either #opentowork or an #expert because…LinkedIn influencers have arrived. If you’re not reeling with anxiety about your job search, then you are scrolling through endless advice posts about everything from how to grow your LinkedIn following big enough to make six figures to the correct formula to the best time to apply for jobs (Sundays)! This is thanks to LinkedIn’s new creator-friendly features such as Newsletters and the algorithmic prioritization of relevant content for target audiences. But how relevant are the Lessons We Can Learn from the Barbie Marketing Campaign? I’m strongly in favor of the creator economy but what to do when your feed becomes oversaturated enough how-tos, tips, and tricks to make your head pop off.
My solution has been to drastically cut back my time spent on LinkedIn to maybe 30 mins a day if that. I’d love to hear if you’ve noticed changes in your LinkedIn Feed and how you’re leveraging the platform to network and job hunt while maintaining your sanity.
Worthy Time Wasters: The Garbage Scandals Edition
Here are my weekly recs to combat doom scrolling.
LISTEN: Just B With Bethenny Frankel Reality Reckoning: Rachel Leviss
Scroll down if the words Vanderpump Rules mean nothing to you. Just when I thought Scandoval was over, there was a reprise! Bethenny Frankel has emerged as the new spokeswoman for “exploitation without compensation” and a call for unionization in reality TV. Bethenny is knocking down the fourth wall with a sledgehammer as the self-appointed leader of the “Reality Reckoning” movement.
As part of her advocacy, she’s pulling a Howie Mandell with a 3-part tell-all interview with Raquel/Rachel Leviss who is, apparently, quitting Vanderpump Rules and severing all ties with Bravo. Next up for Rachel (she’s reclaiming her real name) is a podcast about being the other woman.
There aren’t too many revelations that I found truly shocking in these episodes — other than the claim that Rachel got paid less than Bethenny’s interns and is now broke. Please, please, please point me in the direction of an internship that pays $350K a year!
Here are a few other cringy accusations in case you don’t have 3 hours of your life to spare:
Kristen Doute was invited back to Bravo for a spinoff in order to keep her quiet about her alleged abuse by James Kennedy.
Rachel says that she was promised a mental health advocate for the VPR reunion but that promise was rescinded as retaliation for her doing that lame TMZ interview outside the nail salon.
Andy Cohen did an interview where he suggested that Rachel was heavily medicated. P.S. She is medicated and didn’t feel that Andy Cohen should be sharing that information publicly.
Lisa Vanderpump adopted Rachel’s dog Graham from foster care and gave him to James. Then, Lisa used the dog as bait to get Rachel to come back to the show. (Backstory: James apparently taught Graham to bite him because he “liked the way it felt.” Cut to Rachel going to treatment and Graham biting Rachel’s mother’s hand to the bone. Hence, him being temporarily re-homed.)
Mostly, this interview is a three-hour peek behind the curtain of how the reality TV sausage is made and basically, the takeaway is, if you decide to be on a reality show, you’re selling your soul to the devil (aka Andy Cohen).
Not-So-Hot-Take: The main reason Rachel decided to leave the show (other than her stated reason that she was denied equal pay to other cast members) is that things didn’t work out with Tom Sandoval. I think she’s gearing up for a lawsuit against Bravo and the production company.
As much as I find Bethenny to be a hypocritical opportunist for doing this interview, I do agree with her on one point. We have to be willing to evaluate why we are still watching reality shows like Housewives or VPR even when we know that they are manufactured and exploitative. In what other industries are employees rewarded for cheating, divorce, drug use, and legal woes? Government? For a breakdown of how reality tv taps into our hard-wired response to archetypes, this episode of Deep Dive with Jamie Stein adds a deeper dimension of context.
BONUS Vanderpump Rules Drama: Allegedly, Katie Maloney is hooking up with Tom Schwartz’s best friend and former canceled cast member Max Boyens AND Schwartz’s new flame Tori. TBD if any of this is true or if we are getting warmed up for the next season with garbage rumors. Oh, lord, why do I even care? Because I need to take my mind off of my own problems.
WATCH: The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 4 First Look
EveryReal Housewives franchise is theater of the absurd. It’s just a matter of which flavor of absurdism is speaking to you. Admittedly, I tuned out of RHOSLC last season in the wake of the Jen Shaw fraud case sentencing, but this wild trailer feat. the return of crazy Mary Cosby has me wanting to tune back in. When will her religious cult face its reckoning? The season appears to be chock full of scandals and the trailer hints that they’re going to go heavy on the costumes this season, which is always a favorable sign. Who doesn’t like to see women fight while wearing prairie bonnets?
WATCH: Depp v. Heard (Netflix)
And speaking of our love of “real-life” scandals, Netflix docuseries Depp v. Heard tackles our collective fascination with events that have nothing to do with us. In the doc, we revisit the most salacious moments of the U.S. trial. (Who can forget the “grumpy” on Johnny’s pillow?) But this series distinguishes itself because of what it lacks: interviews with key players or experts. Instead, we get a fact check on “truth” and “untruth” through the court of public opinion. We learn about what evidence was omitted from the trial and how easily social media can sway public opinion, be manipulated and misconstrued. It personally left me feeling a bit more sympathetic towards Amber Heard…but only a little.
Says series filmmaker Emma Cooper:
“I found myself compulsively watching the live feed, and then discussing it with my friends, and looking at what everybody was saying on social. And I wondered what that said about me that I was so interested in what felt like a rather a sad open event of a private relationship. [Sic] Really, my intention was always to try and make it about the conversation around the trial. I wanted to get away from any he-said-she-said from within the trial, and I just really wanted to talk about us and the way we communicate, and the way that we look at events that don’t really have anything to do with us.”
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