Unless your confidence and self-assurance are untouchable, you’ve likely felt envious of someone on social media at least once in your life. In particular, Instagram and TikTok seem to be cesspools for insecurity and jealousy. 

We have access to countless individuals’ lives, watching highlight reels of their relationships, travel experiences, careers, and day-to-day routines—it’s no wonder we subconsciously feel inferior.

But one often overlooked platform that triggers similar feelings of envy is LinkedIn—and it’s getting so bad that some users are deleting their profiles altogether.

‘LinkedIn Envy’ Is So Real That People Are Deleting Their Professional Profiles

“I deleted my account because every time I go on it I feel absolutely terrible about myself,” one person wrote on the LinkedIn subreddit. “It might just be me and comparing myself too much to others but does anyone else find people on there to be completely cringe and egotistical lol?! I don’t even have a bad job but I think LinkedIn has just become an egocentric breeding zone like every other social media platform.”

Not to mention, just like on any other social site, users lie on LinkedIn, too.

“My favorite post was from someone who said they were the Director of Security of the entire company. I looked for them in the company directory since the company has at least 100k employees. So after I couldn’t find them I searched the support side and found out they were a ‘account security front line support vendor,’” one Reddit user shared. “Never trust any title on LinkedIn, it’s not confirmed nor are most of these posts from people acting like they have the best job ever—yet hop to a new company every other month.”

But while you might have the luxury of deleting your Instagram or TikTok apps/accounts without any major repercussions, most employers require you to provide your LinkedIn account during the application process—and they often browse your recent activity, too. So, unfortunately, it’s not as easy as logging out and forgetting about the professional braggers.

However, you can set boundaries for yourself. For one thing, avoid doom-scrolling, as you would on other social media platforms. Additionally, don’t believe everything you read—it’s rare that a job is actually the “amazing opportunity” users claim it to be.

Just stay in your own lane, use it for your own networking, and know you’re not alone in your career envy.