r/sciencecommunication • u/Smart_Pants_81 • Feb 27 '24
Why do PhD scientists hate communicating on platforms like LinkedIn?
There seems to be a lot of discussion around the reasons why PhD scientists don’t use LinkedIn to talk about their research. But, I’d love to hear things from the horses mouths. I am a PhD scientist who is no longer in the lab and I know when I was doing research I didn’t want to use LinkedIn.
Let’s hear your thoughts.
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Feb 27 '24
I feel like scientists generally don't like to talk gibberish. If they have something to say, they do so, for example by mentioning a new publication of theirs. But the typical "today my little daughter spoke to me and told me that I should pursue state-of-the-art AI industry 4.0" is not their style.
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u/Smooth_criminal2299 Feb 27 '24 edited Feb 27 '24
LinkedIn is full of disingenuous self promotion that smart people who value empirical evidence, like scientists, can see through!
Jokes aside, I think in science the better form of self promotion is attending conferences and seminars and letting your work and data speak for you. LinkedIn seems like a less effective use of time.
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u/Aggravating_Hour9965 Feb 27 '24
I'm a science PIO at a university. I think there's a divide. While some (especially MDs, pharmaceutical scientists, economists, legal scholars and chemists in my experience) use LinkedIn a lot, others are missing completely. Mostly it's about posting accomplishments, i.e. new studies / grants. To be honest I don't see that big of a difference in comparison to X.
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u/neogeshel Feb 27 '24
It's shallow and self promotional in an inane and inauthentic way. Content for engagement sake without any real substantive interest behind it.
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u/Chahles88 Feb 27 '24
I’m not a sharer in general. I don’t like posting about my personal life on social media, and a natural extension of that is that I don’t like to post about my professional life on LinkedIn. I feel like posting on IG/ Facebook is all about seeking validation and attention. I think gloating about your professional accomplishments online is in the same vein or worse. Keep it to your CV.
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u/CloneRanger88 Feb 27 '24
I’m a PhD scientist trying to find my first industry job and I don’t even bother to look at LinkedIn postings anymore. They “promote” jobs that don’t fit the filters you set and that completely destroyed its usefulness to me.
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u/Smart_Pants_81 Feb 27 '24
Yeah, I can totally relate to that. It’s not a great place to find jobs. Better off finding a specialist recruiter.
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u/gtuckerkellogg Feb 28 '24
I find LinkedIn to be the most perfidious of all social media platforms. For YEARS they tried to trick users into importing their personal contact lists, with no easy exit from the trap. It's just awful, shallow, and self-serving.
I do use it occasionally to notify others of something, and I read it to see when people have changed jobs, etc. But it seems to me like the worst place to try to have a discussion (and I say that as someone still on Twitter!)
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u/CaptainCat2013 Mar 08 '24
Perhaps I'm the only non-LinkedIn hater here. Sure, it is full of endless tedious self-promotion (I guess that's the point of it). But part of being in any career is networking/finding out about new jobs/making yourself discoverable. Science is a career like anything else. So, in short, for the career side of being a scientist then LinkedIn is worth being on. But for doing actual science, like sharing preprints, discussing results etc it is very rubbish indeed, simply cos LI was never meant for that kind of stuff anyway.
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Feb 28 '24
Personally, I like to use LinkedIn for what it's for....strictly as a networking platform and for higher level discussions about the impact of science and health. I'd unfollow anyone discussing actual scientific studies because that feels pretentious for LinkedIn and is better suited for Twitter.
I primarily use LinkedIn to develop connections with science industry leaders I would otherwise never meet. I value this because I'm transitioning into the startup space and leaving academia.
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u/fiaanaut Feb 27 '24 edited Oct 12 '24
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