LinkedIn’s Doom-Scrolling Problem Can Be Fixed

I've spent more than 25 years creating content, managing editorial teams, and building communities around information people need.

Lately, I've been experiencing LinkedIn from a different perspective.

As a job seeker.

Sadly, the doom-scrolling on LinkedIn is worse than anywhere else.

I open the app to search for work. To network. To stay informed.

Instead, I'm often met with an endless stream of uncertainty:

• Journalists who have been unemployed for months.
• Editors looking for their next editor opp, management or not.
• Content creators wondering where the industry is headed.
• Health writers watching budgets shrink and teams disappear.
• Fact-checkers finding that human fact-checking isn’t as economical as automated Slackbots and AI tools.
• Managers, directors, and leaders at all levels announcing depression over months-long unemployment uncertainty.

Many of these people are highly skilled. Many have decades of experience. Many are doing everything right.

Yet the feed keeps reinforcing the same message: Things are tough.

So many are facing tightening economic realities along with corporate pushes to generative AI tools, both creating a need to cut back on people and all the costs we bring to a role.

I don't blame the people sharing their stories. These conversations matter. The struggle and subsequent support is real.

But as someone who has spent a career thinking about readership needs, user experience, audience engagement, and content strategy, I can't help wondering whether we're solving the wrong problem.

LinkedIn has become the default destination for people searching for jobs.

Yet much of the experience is optimized around engagement rather than progress.

Job seekers don't just need more content.
We need momentum.

We need real signals that opportunities exist.

I’m not talking about the Job Tracker tool, either. This is handy when it works, but these days so many job postings are funneled through AI or recruitment screeners, that our apps just get lost in the abyss.

Overall, we need ways to connect with people facing similar challenges without being overwhelmed by constant reminders of how hard the market is.

We need an experience that supports professional growth while also protecting mental well-being.

That's not just a product challenge.

It's a content challenge.

How do we collectively use LinkedIn to balance honesty with optimism? Useful information instead of anxiety?

How does LinkedIn help us create an environment that helps people move forward instead of feeling stuck?
Those are questions I've spent my career tackling in journalism, digital media, and patient advocacy.

Yes, maybe it does come back to us using LinkedIn at the end of the day. We need to balance our mental health when using this online tool.

Whether covering healthcare, managing editorial operations, or building trusted communities, the goal has always been the same: help people find clarity in moments of uncertainty.

Right now, there are millions of professionals like me experiencing uncertainty.

Maybe it's time to rethink how we support each other. And ourselves.

Because people come to LinkedIn looking for jobs and connections.

We shouldn't leave feeling worse than when we arrived.

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