LinkedIn Is Quietly Eating Social Media. Here's the Psychology Behind It.

It isn't just you. A lot of people are spending more time on LinkedIn.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis, Americans checking LinkedIn more than once a day climbed to 4.7% last year from 3.9% in 2020. That might sound small, but on a platform with 1.3 billion members, it represents tens of millions of additional daily sessions.

Meanwhile, revenue jumped to $17 billion in 2025 from $7 billion in 2020. Membership doubled. And perhaps most importantly, users actually stick around.

What's happening here?

It used to be a punchline

For years, LinkedIn was a punchline. It was a wasteland of corporate buzzwords, 4 a.m. wake-up routines, and stories about overcoming workplace adversity with a little something called grit.

Some of that remains. But the vibe has shifted.

As content moderation and fact-checking declined at X and Facebook, LinkedIn became a refuge. Many users concluded it was worth trading rage bait for earnest monologues about why getting laid off was a blessing in disguise.

The Journal identified three reasons LinkedIn is winning people over. Each one reveals something important about human psychology and what makes a platform actually work.

Reason 1: Real Names Create Self-Discipline

Even before Elon Musk gutted X's content moderation, James Bailey was tired of the shouting.

"It's like a cursed artifact that gives you great power to keep up with what's going on, but at the cost of subtly corrupting your soul," the 38-year-old Providence College economics professor told the Journal.

He retreated to LinkedIn. Now he spends five to ten minutes a day on a site he used to ignore.

The reason lies in LinkedIn's oldest and stodgiest rule: real names required.

"I cannot tell you how many times we've had internal debates on: Should we add handles?" said Gyanda Sachdeva, LinkedIn's head of consumer experience. The company stuck with real identities to preserve trust.

The policy works because it makes users more careful. As Sachdeva explained, "They don't want to put something on LinkedIn that a recruiter might look at."

Science backs this up. A 2013 analysis of online newspaper forums found that 53% of anonymous comments contained attacks or vulgarity, compared with just 29% from users who had to identify themselves.

The study's author, Prof. Arthur Santana, concluded that when people can't hide behind an alias, they are much more likely to remain civil.

Reason 2: Real Names Create Smarter Conversations

The real-name rule doesn't just stop jerks. It also pressures people to perform.

LinkedIn users will be familiar with the saccharine positivity of users explaining how their latest promotion makes them feel "humbled and grateful."

But the need to look professional has a hidden upside: smarter conversations.

Consider a recent study of a stock-investment forum in China. Before requiring registration with government identification, it was a rumor mill. Afterward, the researchers observed that posts about short-term betting declined, replaced by discussions about business fundamentals.

The comments became better at predicting future stock returns.

Even though users didn't have to post under real names, the mere fact that the platform knew who they were improved discourse. As Kanyuan Huang from the Chinese University of Hong Kong explained, accountability changes behavior even when no one is watching.

This appeals to Professor Bailey, who now routinely finds insightful posts on LinkedIn. "It can be a good place for people to share their writing now," he said.

Reason 3: A Gentler Algorithm

LinkedIn hasn't sat still. To justify Microsoft's 2016 purchase price of $27 billion, the platform evolved from a digital Rolodex into a daily destination.

It overhauled its news feed in 2017 and added TikTok-style vertical videos in early 2024. But the algorithm works differently than other platforms.

According to Sachdeva, the algorithm doesn't promote hot takes. Instead, it emphasizes posts that create "economic opportunity" and get saved or shared.

"It's almost never coming from a place of controversy," she said. "It's usually very constructive."

LinkedIn is even using artificial intelligence to attack a top complaint: the humblebrag from people you don't know. "You don't even know this person and they show up in your feed with humblebrags. We don't want that," Sachdeva said.

But the filter has its limits. If a dad framing his toddler's screamfest as a lesson in conflict resolution is a personal connection of yours, the algorithm might let it through.

"We believe that deserves to be a candidate for your feed," she acknowledged.

What This Means for Professionals

The data is clear: LinkedIn is where professional attention is going.

While other platforms optimize for engagement through outrage, LinkedIn optimizes for what it calls "economic opportunity." That's a fancy way of saying: content that helps people in their careers.

For professionals trying to build their personal brand, this creates an interesting opportunity.

The bar for quality is higher. Anonymous hot takes won't work. Your real name is attached to everything you post.

But the reward is also higher. Because the audience is engaged professionally, not just scrolling for entertainment, the people who see your content are more likely to actually matter for your career.

Consistency compounds. The algorithm rewards people who show up regularly with valuable content. Unlike platforms where viral moments dominate, LinkedIn rewards steady builders.

The irony

There's an irony in all this. The features that made it feel corporate and boring, real names, professional context, earnest positivity, turned out to be exactly what people wanted when every other platform descended into chaos.

Sometimes the old rules are old for a reason.

LinkedIn's 22-year-old real-name policy seemed quaint in an era of anonymous hot takes and viral dunks. Now it looks prescient.

The platform that refused to let you hide is winning because hiding was the problem all along.

Curious how LinkedIn stacks up against the competition? Read LinkedIn vs. X for businesses. Or learn why employee accounts beat company pages on reach and engagement.