We Are Being Gaslit on LinkedIn | Opinion
Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece. The views shared here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Nurse.org.
Every day for the last year, atrocities have unfolded in our country and around the world, affecting our communities, our workplaces, our health systems, and the people we serve, affecting us all. The genocide in Gaza. Trump cutting funding for research. The killing of innocent protesters in Minneapolis by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). All these things and more dominate the news cycle and other social media feeds. Yet when I open LinkedIn, it’s almost as if none of this is happening. The LinkedIn posts continue daily, discussing the professionally mundane — productivity tips, leadership quotes, conference announcements, and self-promotion, while the real world is on fire just outside the computer screen. It is like we are all being gaslit on LinkedIn. That is, until a couple of weeks ago.
I understand that LinkedIn is considered a “professional” platform, and I post more “mundane” content than most, but the idea that professionalism requires silence, or that one should ignore critical aspects of what dominates real life, is a problem. Everything we do is political when you work in healthcare and public health; when you work in business or education; when you work in not-for-profits or the news; it is all political, because policy shapes it all. Pretending otherwise doesn’t make the issues go away — or make it less uncomfortable — it just makes those experiencing the ramifications of the real world feel more alone.
Which is why I was heartened to see more individuals and organizations speaking out on LinkedIn after the heartbreaking murder of the critical care nurse, Alex Pretti. It shouldn’t take “one of our own” being killed in broad day light on video for people to feel empowered to post, yet if this is what was needed to spur social activism into action, then at the very least something good will have come from it.
When we avoid acknowledging what’s happening around us, it creates a strange disconnect. A kind of collective denial. It is a surreal experience to watch the news, read the newspapers, and engage in the atrocities going on in our country and around the world, only to then go on LinkedIn and have it be business as usual. It is like the Matrix, and we all picked the Blue pill.
I’m not calling for performative outrage (though I will take any outrage I can get) or for everyone to turn LinkedIn into a political stage or a cable news feed. I am, however, calling for acknowledgement and discourse. Acknowledgement that we are not in normal times and that the world we work in is the same world we live in — and that that world, this country, is currently under attack in multiple ways that affect us all personally and professionally.
Professionalism should not require silence. A professional social media platform should not require gaslighting. Leadership should not require detachment, but the courage to speak up. The people we lead, teach, work with, and care for are affected by what’s happening every single day out in the real world. I am affected by what’s happening every single day. You are, too.
We can be professional while being true to the circumstances around us. We can be professional and still go about business as usual by acknowledging the real times we live and work in. We can be professional on LinkedIn by using its collective and connective power to address the atrocities we are all facing and do it together.
If we want a social and professional platform where we can truly work with each other to build networks, programs, collaborations, and community, then we can’t keep acting like the collapse of our democracy, the loss of the rights of our neighbors, the murder of innocent civilians, and the loss of our professional environments as we know them are normal.
I love LinkedIn. I love the people and community that have been built from it. I love the opportunities it has afforded me because of those relationships. But I want that community, those people, to know the whole of me, and I want to know the whole of them. We can’t do that if we are ignoring such vital parts of each of our worlds because they are not deemed “professional” or we are scared of the ramifications of “political” posts on the platform. I am glad I got to see more of people these past weeks, I hope I continue to see the whole of them.
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