# The AI-fication of LinkedIn (& Social Media) <span style="font-size: 13px;"> <span style="color: black;">Planted:</span> <span style="color: gray;"> 24 September 2025</span> </span> When it comes to *LinkedIn*, I have to say that for as much as it's memed on, I've had a pleasant experience so far. Not only has it helped me a lot career wise, but I also seem to be in a lucky position regarding my timeline's content, which consists almost exclusively of art and industry-related posts. Nonetheless, those infamous motivational or "self optimizing" posts occasionally get stranded in my timeline, always making me shake my head. What I've noticed with most of them is that they are likely written entirely by AI. Especially in the context of personal growth, this feels ironic. But first, a little lesson, or rather, an insight, on how to spot AI generated posts: First, there's the writing style. Large Language Models (LLMs), such as the one behind *ChatGPT*, have a very distinct style and tone, which often feels over the top (like they're trying *too* hard) and simply... artificial (no pun intended). Second, and this is probably the easiest hint: LLMs tend to use symbols that, to put it bluntly, no one usually uses in personal texts. The most common example is the em dash (```—```). Contrary to the hyphen (```-```), it's longer and has no dedicated key, requiring a special shortcut (like ```Alt+0151``` on *Windows*). Of course, the use of such symbols doesn't mean every text using the em dash was written by AI, but it remains a solid clue, as most people casually working on texts usually don't make use of them. What I always ask myself when reading these posts, especially when paired with an AI generated image, is... what's the point? Of course, you could ask this about any superficial or blunt post, regardless of whether it's human or artificial. But, and perhaps this distinction is only meaningful to me, a human made post still has *some* personal aspect, be it the use of emojis, a unique writing style, or simple expressiveness. Timelines filled with such AI posts are, in my opinion, just generic and empty shells of content. The bigger, not so far fetched picture of the majority of all content one day being generated en masse (looking at you *Instagram*), begs the question: what is the point of these platforms if it's just AI talking to AI (which, in many cases, is already happening)? *LinkedIn* is by far not the only example of this, and in comparison, it's far from the worst. From what I saw when I last used it, *Facebook* is just that: AI bots interacting with each other. As much as the "dead internet theory" tends to be dismissed as a conspiracy, it doesn't seem so far off when you look at social media today. But *LinkedIn* is in a unique position content wise, in my opinion. At its core, the idea of *LinkedIn* is to present _yourself_, who you are as a person, in a professional context to potential future employers or to find team members. This inherent purpose makes the emptiness of AI generated content feel particularly hollow. Because, *who* are you truly presenting at this point? #thoughts --- <div class="button-row"> <button id="like-button"> <span class="material-symbols-outlined" id="like-icon">favorite</span> <span id="like-count">0</span> </button> <a href="Write Something" class="bookmark-link internal-link"> <button id="comment"> <span class="material-symbols-outlined" id="comment-icon">chat_bubble</span> </button> </a> </div>