New Delhi: LinkedIn is supposed to be the internet’s most polished corner—a place for career updates, networking wins and carefully worded gratitude posts. But in Elon Musk’s telling, it is also the place where professional self-promotion tips over into “cringe.”
The X owner and now trillionaire once again took aim at the Microsoft-owned platform after replying to Craig Weiss, who wrote that he loses faith in humanity every time he reads LinkedIn and that the best founders do not post there. Musk responded: “Posting on LinkedIn is cringe.”
It was the latest in a long line of jabs Musk has aimed at the professional networking site. In 2024, he said, “I instantly lose respect for anyone who posts on LinkedIn. Unbearably cringe,” and also described it as “so cringe it will make your toenails curl.” A year later, he escalated the criticism further, calling LinkedIn “lethal levels of cringe.”
He has also mocked the platform’s very format. Musk once said that people send him links to LinkedIn profiles, but the “cringe level is so high” that he prefers resumes or bios by email. He even promised that X would one day build a competitor to LinkedIn that would be “cool.”
The latest post has sparked a debate. Some users agreed with Musk, saying the platform has become a theatre of forced positivity. One user wrote: “LinkedIn is the only place on earth where someone gets laid off and writes a 500-word post thanking the company for the incredible opportunity to grow.” Another added: “You both are 100% right—the toxic positivity over there is completely unhinged.”
Others pushed back, saying LinkedIn still serves a purpose that X has not replaced. “What’s the alternative? They still exist for a reason unfortunately. X has yet to pave the way for business focused social media,” one user wrote. Another said, “I’ve gotten at least 2 jobs through LinkedIn. 0 through X so far.” A third summed up the platform’s appeal differently: “Not when you need a job, that’s what it exists for!”
That tension goes to the heart of LinkedIn’s identity. For critics, the site can feel like a performance review that never ends, where every post is calibrated to impress recruiters, colleagues and strangers. For supporters, it remains one of the most useful tools for hiring, career advancement and business networking.
One user on X put that split bluntly, writing that “LinkedIn feels like you’re always trying to impress someone, like you’re in a constant performance review,” while X feels more like “an actual conversation” where people can be “smart, funny… basically just yourself discussing any topics.”
Musk, who does have a LinkedIn profile but has not posted on it, has long positioned himself as a critic of corporate polish and professional conformity. His latest swipe fits neatly into that persona. But it also underlines something LinkedIn’s defenders would readily point out: a platform can be mocked for its tone and still remain indispensable to people looking for jobs, clients and visibility.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)