Have you ever felt like you’re falling behind in life while scrolling through LinkedIn? The app can make it seem like everyone loves their job, every company is amazing, and everyone around you, even people you’ve never met, is building a successful future. What was once a platform for job searching and professional networking has become a showcase of achievements.
Generation Z is entering the job market in a hyperconnected world, where the pressure to build a polished “personal brand” can become an emotional burden. But how does professional validation take a toll on students’ mental health?
The idealization of early success
Starting a career often comes with uncertainty and a need for validation. Students and recent graduates are particularly more susceptible to this pressure because they are still building their professional identities and discovering their strengths. As they seek external references to determine if they’re on the right track, they end up facing a feed filled with self-promotion from individuals or companies.
This can leave young people feeling like they are not doing enough, falling behind, or moving at the wrong pace. Clinical psychologist Andréia Toti Barcello explains: “Comparison ceases to be a source of inspiration and becomes a source of pressure.”
Generation Z has grown up with social media as part of everyday life, where the pressure to appear productive and successful is constant. From Andréia’s perspective, this urgency is driven by the need for a sense of belonging and social validation. It can be concerning when building a personal brand shifts from a professional tool to an expectation of perfection.
Impostor syndrome
By being exposed to other people’s achievements on a daily basis, feelings such as anxiety, insecurity, frustration, inadequacy, and the constant fear of falling behind – the infamous FOMO – become part of the routine for those who browse the web.
“People compare their doubts, difficulties, and mistakes with the curated version of others’ professional lives. Often, only the achievements are shared, while the behind-the-scenes struggles, uncertainties, and obstacles remain hidden. Feeling envy or demotivation in response to this doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it’s simply a natural human reaction to social comparison,” the psychologist explains.
In an attempt to meet these expectations, many young people fall into the trap of trying to appear like experienced professionals from the very beginning of their careers. Trying to maintain a flawless narrative without the experience to back it up can create a gap between who they are and who they feel they need to be.
This dissonance can trigger imposter syndrome, generating a constant fear of being “exposed.” In an effort to protect their online image, young people may start avoiding new challenges for fear of failure. Andréia emphasizes that being a beginner isn’t a flaw to be hidden, but a natural stage of development; learning requires recognizing what one doesn’t yet know; therefore, forcing a posture of a fully-fledged professional compromises the learning process itself.
When your feed makes you sick
Recognizing when LinkedIn use crosses the line from productive to harmful to your mental health means paying attention to emotional, physical, and behavioral signs.
Noticing how you feel after using LinkedIn is essential. If you turn to the platform to look for opportunities but leave feeling incapable or inferior, it may be worth staying alert. When these feelings become persistent rather than occasional, they begin to affect your sleep, studies, and relationships.
Having ambitions is healthy, but professional development must respect each person’s own pace. LinkedIn should serve as a tool for building a career path, not as a showcase to prove one’s self-worth. “A resume shows part of what a person does, but it doesn’t measure everything they are,” says Andréia. After all, a career is only one part of a person’s life, not a measure of their worth.
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The article above was edited by Julia Delboni
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