Note: I no longer believe that LinkedIn should be a refuge from political news, as I said in the post the following week.

My office in the Dynatrace Vienna Tower shares space with various companies and organizations, including the embassies of Norway, Australia, and New Zealand. Today, these three embassies organized a brief moment of silence outside our building to honor those who have suffered and lost their lives as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. I took the elevator downstairs, stepped outside, and joined everyone in that quiet reflection.

The moment of silence felt good after a few nights of doom-scrolling on my phone. Like many, I go through phases of being consumed by the news cycle. I check Reddit, BlueSky, and Mastodon, read depressing updates about the state of the planet, and end up feeling helpless and alone. Eventually, I resist the temptation and turn to a good book. The pattern repeats - feeling compelled to check the news, only to realize it does nothing for my peace of mind.

One app that doesn’t depress me is LinkedIn. My feed is limited to updates about observability, artificial intelligence, updates from friends, colleagues, and people who take themselves too seriously - which is annoying but not depressing. LinkedIn is a refuge from geopolitical news.

But it’s also weird. My LinkedIn feed is disconnected from what’s happening just beyond the gates. It’s like that dog drinking coffee, saying everything is fine. I often catch myself on LinkedIn, responding to some post about Kubernetes, then stopping and thinking, What the hell are we all doing here?

As George Orwell said, “In our age, there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’” I’m not sure what he’d make of LinkedIn. But I prefer it this way - I think we all do. Software and tech are as much of an escape as the book I’m reading (Lonesome Dove). I’m not sure if these boundaries will hold - or if they should.