[__MatrixMan__]

I think the problem is LinkedIn.

The itch it scratches could be handled without a feed at all. Give people a place to post their resume, their publications, links to their projects and achievements. Let them traverse their social graph to view each other's pages.

There was never any need to give them tools for spamming each other with updates to this info. If somebody is interested to know where you're working now, they can come to your page and view that info.

[gigiogigione]

Wasn’t the news feed what made Facebook big? That digital slot machine with uncertain payoff every time you pull the lever (refresh the page) is what gets you to associate the social media app (eg LinkedIn) with dopamine hits. So you spend more time there = “engagement” = more ad spend etc