During
the course of publishing a post on LinkedIn on current affairs concerning India
I had come across quite a few reactions and comments that made me a little
inquisitive. Since the post involved a kind of political behaviour rampant in
India and some issues regarding international diplomacy the discussion thus
ensued veered towards politics. And yes, there came comments from different
members or non-members vociferating that LinkedIn was not the right forum for
politics.
Now,
almost all will agree that LinkedIn is not a job portal notwithstanding the
fact that a lot of HRD managers and recruiters regularly use this as a place
for talent hunt. More truthfully, most of the members here are already employed—looking
naturally for greener pastures. There are many commentators on LinkedIn who say
that not having a profile here is a cardinal sin or even suicide in today’s
times—no matter if you are employed or not. Therefore it is also agreed that
this networking place is crucial for all across all sectors of the economy of
the world. It is also likely to be agreed upon that LinkedIn is not Facebook,
because in the latter only family albums are mostly appreciated and not views
or articles or links.
LinkedIn
is quintessentially meant for professionals. Now, the word ‘professional’
basically comes from ‘profession’ or the type and nature of work one is doing. In
that sense everybody is a professional in his or her field that may range from
business/marketing to filmmaking/media/writing. There is some scope for
disagreement here concerning who is rightfully considered a ‘professional’,
because the modern-day usage of the term signifies people who are expert,
innovative and ruthless strategists. By this definition some get unfortunately excluded
leading to separate terms like Army men, Policemen, Bureaucrats, Lawyers,
Doctors, Journalists, Vendors and the like. It is not right at all not to call
all these people professionals. However, the moot point here is that nowhere in
this networking hub you find any bar on entry of anyone practising any
profession. All people ranging across all professions have thus the right of
entry and to express their opinions or give inputs about their expertise on
their specific fields on this forum.
You
find a whole lot of groups too in LinkedIn on various subjects of interests,
and experts say that formation of groups indicates higher levels of maturity
among members. Groups on movies discuss even film reviews while groups on books
discuss literature or highlight book releases. So it is either already there or
hugely possible that a group of media personnel is also formed giving a layman’s
analysis of political developments leading to a most productive discussion. Would
this forum restrict such activities as not ‘right’ for the forum?
As
a terrific innovation LinkedIn also offers you to write and publish your posts
here and the Pulse may very well put you in a highly interactive platform,
making you famous for your writings alone. Now, members of various professions
would obviously write about their fields of expertise, and therefore, you must
expect a wide variety in the type and nature of posts. Personally speaking, I was
delighted having this platform and started writing on all fields of my
interests. Of course, most of my writings on subjects like Cricket or Sports,
Humor, Fiction, Movies or so on got totally ignored. Okay no problem in that,
but nobody objected to such content as not being right for the forum. More interestingly,
my few posts on content that involved current affairs and bits of politicking earned
maximum views.
I
would like to put in perspective, therefore, why politics is being singled out and considered
as anathema for LinkedIn. When one lives in one’s country one cannot ignore
political developments of that country or for that matter international events
too, because only we talk of the global economy. God forbid, in the event of
wars or extreme tensions breaking out involving several countries all
professions or professionals of those countries would be severely impacted
irrespective of whether it is business/marketing or anything else.
As
an afterthought, there is no disclaimer or anything of that sort on the website
of LinkedIn discouraging or barring entry of politicians into its fold!
