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With growing concerns that he will not finish his seven-page paper on time, anthropology concentrator Alan Chavez ’15 claims he is unable to focus on his schoolwork because he keeps getting distracted by the professional networking site, LinkedIn.
“It’s the Facebook for professionals seeking employment, and I’m obsessed,” Chavez said, refreshing his page for the second time this minute to check for new InMail messages. “How am I supposed to think about the patronization of indigenous Paraguayan tribes when Allison Schneider just joined LinkedIn and wants to connect? I bet if I endorse her for Brand Development, she would endorse me for Community Outreach.”
Chavez, who is supposed to be leading a seminar discussion this week and has yet to do any of the readings, says he joined LinkedIn six months ago and has been hooked ever since. “It’s really addicting. I find myself mindlessly navigating to LinkedIn whenever I’m on my computer,” said the 20-year-old. “I LinkedIn stalk companies I don’t even know, sometimes for hours. It’s a love-hate relationship, you know?”
Preparing for the upcoming summer internship season, Chavez is excited to see what new interests and skills his connections will add next fall. “I can’t wait until Brandon Rose shares his Google internship. That’s going to be such a great experience for him to add to his profile.”
After his recent upgrade to LinkedIn Premium, Chavez receives regular email notifications of who has viewed his profile. “I wonder if Renée Hutton ever looks at my profile,” said Chavez, staring at the professional headshot of a girl from his psychology class instead of drafting a final project proposal due tomorrow. “She’s so hot. I would hire her for sure.”
Addressing his procrastination, Chavez hopes to control his LinkedIn browsing in the future. “Sometimes I wish I could just delete my LinkedIn profile so I could focus on my classes, but how else would I keep in touch with all of my professional connections?”
At time of press, when he should have been at a job interview, Chavez was checking his LinkedIn home page to see if Pulse had recommended any trending Influencer posts.
