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• Surveillance and Control: LinkedIn operates as a digital panopticon, where users’ activities are constantly monitored and analyzed. This data is then used by the platform and potential employers to evaluate and categorize individuals. Gen Z’s awareness of this surveillance can lead to self-censorship and the performance of an idealized, compliant worker identity, further contributing to alienation and a loss of autonomy over their self-representation.
• Precarious Labor and the “Gig Economy”: LinkedIn facilitates connections to the gig economy and freelance work, which, from a Marxist perspective, often represents precarious labor with limited security and benefits. Gen Z’s self-branding on the platform becomes a necessary tool to navigate this unstable landscape, forcing them to constantly market themselves in a competitive digital marketplace. This intensifies the pressure to perform and can exacerbate economic anxieties.  

• Extraction of Surplus Value: While Gen Z invests time and effort in building their professional brand on LinkedIn, the platform itself extracts surplus value through data collection, advertising, and premium subscriptions. Users generate valuable content and connections that contribute to LinkedIn’s profitability, often without direct compensation for this “labor.”

Schumpeterian Perspective: Creative Destruction and the Entrepreneurial Self

Schumpeter’s theories, particularly creative destruction and the role of the entrepreneur, offer a different lens through which to analyze Gen Z’s self-branding on LinkedIn.

• Innovation and Disruption: Gen Z’s approach to professional self-branding often involves innovative and disruptive tactics. They leverage multimedia content, embrace authenticity (albeit strategically), and build online communities in ways that differ from previous generations. LinkedIn becomes a space for these “digital entrepreneurs” to showcase their unique skills and ideas, potentially disrupting traditional hiring practices and professional norms.
• The Entrepreneurial Self: Schumpeter emphasized the role of the entrepreneur as a driver of innovation and economic progress. On LinkedIn, Gen Z individuals are encouraged to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset towards their careers, actively marketing their skills and seeking out new opportunities. Their self-branding becomes a form of entrepreneurial activity, where they are the “product” being promoted.  

• Competition and Progress: LinkedIn fosters a competitive environment where individuals strive to stand out. This competition, from a Schumpeterian perspective, can drive progress as individuals are incentivized to develop new skills and present themselves in compelling ways. Gen Z’s efforts to build a strong personal brand can be seen as a form of “creative destruction” of older, more passive approaches to career development.
• The “Gale of Creative Destruction”: The rapid evolution of digital platforms and the changing nature of work mean that Gen Z must constantly adapt their self-branding strategies. LinkedIn itself is not a static entity, and users must innovate to remain relevant. This reflects Schumpeter’s concept of the “gale of creative destruction,” where innovation constantly reshapes the economic landscape.  

Identity Construction in Platform Capitalism:

LinkedIn’s mediation of Gen Z’s self-branding reveals several key aspects of identity construction in platform capitalism:

• Performative Authenticity: Gen Z often emphasizes “authenticity” in their branding, but this authenticity is often carefully curated and performed for a professional audience. The pressure to build a marketable personal brand can lead to a strategic deployment of identity, where certain aspects are highlighted while others are downplayed.
• Datafied Identity: Individuals’ professional identities become increasingly datafied on platforms like LinkedIn. Skills, experiences, and connections are quantified and algorithmically assessed, shaping how individuals are perceived and presented with opportunities.  

• Commodified Identity: Identity itself becomes a form of capital, to be invested in and leveraged for economic gain. Gen Z, acutely aware of the digital landscape, often approaches identity construction with a strategic, market-oriented mindset.
• Fluid and Adaptable Identity: In the context of platform capitalism and the gig economy, professional identities need to be fluid and adaptable. Gen Z often presents a multifaceted self, showcasing a range of skills and interests to cater to diverse opportunities.

Conclusion:

LinkedIn’s role in mediating Gen Z’s professional self-branding highlights the complex interplay between identity construction, digital labor, and platform capitalism. From a Marxist perspective, these platforms can be seen as sites of potential exploitation and alienation, where self-branding becomes a form of unpaid labor within a digital surveillance system. Schumpeter’s theories, conversely, emphasize the innovative and entrepreneurial aspects of Gen Z’s self-presentation, viewing it as a driver of disruption and progress in the labor market.

Ultimately, LinkedIn and similar platforms reveal how identity in the digital age is increasingly intertwined with economic imperatives. Gen Z navigates this landscape by strategically constructing and performing professional selves, a process shaped by the affordances and constraints of platform capitalism and the ever-present need to compete and adapt in a rapidly evolving digital economy.