I'm not opposed to social networking, but...

LinkedIn is kind of cold and confusing. You have to make "connections" (like making "friends" on Facebook), and then the idea is that you make more connections with strangers, like you make "friends" with your friend's "mutual friends." Except this isn't so you can spy on their wall-to-wall, this is so you have another "connection," making you look more powerful and important, ergo, more employable. To me, it's like going up to a stranger at a party and saying "can you be a reference for my resume?" I don't KNOW these people. But no, this is kind of the idea behind LinkedIn. Is that you become "linked in" with all kinds of different networks.

And the interface! It's not "Facebook for professionals," it's more like "MySpace for professionals." It's not clean, it's not intuitive. But it is becoming extremely popular with businesses and human resource directors. So why not just forget about the site? With me thinking about dabbing into more New Media studies, I should have and maintain a LinkedIn account. It's a possible investment into a career. (And it's free, too.) But that doesn't mean I exactly like every second of it.