LinkedIn: The Last Social Network Standing (Because Apparently, Words Matter)

From Orkut’s scraps to Facebook’s dopamine-driven feeds, social media platforms have had a fleeting charm.

Orkut Büyükkökten created #Orkut to “make social networking available to everyone.” It worked until everyone lost interest.

Then came #Facebook, where Mark Zuckerberg mused, “The question isn’t, ‘What do we want to know about people?’ It’s, ‘What do people want to tell about themselves?’” Turns out, they mostly wanted to flaunt vacations and fight over politics.

#Instagram thrived on photos, with co-founder Kevin Systrom saying, “People communicate with photos. It’s just a much simpler way to communicate.” Simpler, yes. Shallow, absolutely.

#Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel believed, “People are going to post the most amazing things online when they know it’s not going to stick around forever.”

And #Twitter? Well, it became a boxing ring for people who like to shout using a few characters.

Now it’s 2025, and #LinkedIn has somehow morphed into the new Facebook—for people who think they’re above Facebook. It’s where everyone goes to share their “inspirational” failures that sound suspiciously like success stories.

As Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s co-founder, said, “Everything in life has some risk, and what you have to actually learn to do is how to navigate it.” And navigate it, they have—by turning every layoff into a leadership lesson and every coffee meeting into a networking success.

Why LinkedIn Will Outlive the Rest

The downfall of Orkut, Facebook’s stagnation, and Instagram’s gradual decline all come down to one thing—platforms built for fleeting trends and superficial engagement rarely last. But LinkedIn and also YouTube are built differently.

YouTube remains irreplaceable because, as Steve Chen noted, “The whole idea was to make video sharing easier.” And it still does, offering education, entertainment, and a community-building platform that rewards creators with genuine value.

LinkedIn offers something more sustainable: credibility. Where Instagram offers curated perfection, LinkedIn offers curated intellect. People come to LinkedIn not to be seen but to be heard. It’s a platform built on knowledge-sharing, networking, and showcasing value beyond a perfect selfie.

While Instagram influencers chase viral trends, LinkedIn’s loyalists chase relevance, influence, and, let’s face it, validation of their intellectual prowess. Its structure fosters meaningful interactions and showcases journeys, not just snapshots. So, LinkedIn will remain the sanctuary of the verbose, the ambitious, and the philosophical. As long as the world craves substance over superficiality, LinkedIn will continue to thrive where others fade. Because when the world turns visual, words will always find a way to matter.