Several LinkedIn users practice dating on platform
MANILA, Philippines — A number of users on the work-centric online platform LinkedIn are using the site for more casual reasons: finding a relationship.
Several articles have taken note that a number of LinkedIn's reported billion members don't just use the platform to look for a job but also for dating purposes.
Sociology professor Dustin Kidd from Temple University in Philadelphia, United States told Business Insider that dating via LinkedIn is just another "dating hack" by using online tools designed for other purposes to get a date.
Kidd cited old websites, Friendster and MySpace, as examples. He even name-dropped fitness-tracking site Strava, with messaging being a key feature to why platforms are being used that way.
"The design of LinkedIn helps to maintain its focus on the professional, but any platform with a direct-messaging option is likely to also be used to pursue sex and dating," Kidd explained.
Related: Looks still matter most in online dating — survey
The business website mentioned a study held in the United States where only a few individuals are said to have found success on modern dating applications like Tinder or Bumble.
Another key factor is "catfishing," an activity when users pretend to be someone else online, given that virtual identities are easy to manipulate.
LinkedIn asks its users to link past and current employers and first-person references from co-workers or managers.
One more sociology expert, Jan Yager from John Jay College in New York, advised caution using LinkedIn for dating.
"The main goal of LinkedIn is professional relationships and career-related benefits," she said. "Anyone on LinkedIn has to be very careful not to do anything inappropriate when it comes to seeking romance if that is his or her goal — or it could backfire big time."
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