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Sometimes things go along smoothly in cyberspace and sometimes they simply run amok. The “amok” version has finally attacked me so that all my waking hours have been dedicated to returning to a once simple life on the internet.
APOLOGIES ARE IN ORDER
First, I apologize if you have received an invitation to join me in LinkedIn. And if you accepted my invitation, Thank You! I love you, but please accept my second apology. I am so flattered you have accepted, but this is to inform you that I did not send out the invitations myself. And If you have not accepted but are wondering who I am or if I have descended into early senility, you are quite justified. You are all part of a mass group who received invitations without my active participation in the selection process. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have invited you anyway. It just means I was only a bystander in the process.”
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN ANYWAY?
It seems that with one click, I willingly gave my email address list to LinkedIn. I thought with that one click I would be able to pick and choose who I wished to invite. Instead, invitations were automatically sent to every single contact (with a LinkedIn account) on my email list. Now I realize the error, but the invitations have already gone out!
UNINTENTIONAL INVITATIONS
I call this conundrum “Unintentional Invitations” to LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is supposed to be a place for finding jobs right? I am not seeking work because frankly, I am old (although you never know about these things). I think I look pretty young and I feel good if you don’t count morning stiffness. I am also mentally sharp if you don’t remember the time I ordered cheeseburgers and fries at a drive-up-stop-and-drop mailbox.
So, why are you on LinkedIn you ask? Well, I kept receiving invitations from some poor soul who also fell into quicksand. The constant onslaught finally felt like relentless badgering and I gave in and signed up. What the heck… might be useful… who knows. Maybe I could lie about my age and post a profile picture from twenty years ago. And maybe I would be offered the job of my dreams, something I could do lying on the couch (with a high salary) and name my own hours or minutes a week!
At first being a Linked-Inner was interesting as I found a few people I knew and learned about their skills and backgrounds. But, soon everything deteriorated as the Unintentional Invites kicked in, with no visible way out. Hence, the reference to quicksand.
SUDDENLY I WAS EMBARRASSED
- People from my far distant past (like high school chums) were receiving invitations. Huh?
- New acquaintances were invited – folks I hardly knew.
- Business people were probably thinking I was job hunting and scratching their heads.
- Old friends were wondering why they were invited and worried about my mental stability. They were probably snickering too.
- Family members who already knew me well enough were too polite to inquire why they were on the list but having a good laugh at the dinner table.
- And worst of all, people I never met (total strangers) were invited and came aboard. And there was no explanation for this at all.
HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM
Hmmmm. Like other sites of this sort, there is a community Help Forum for interactive discussions. I clicked in with a question (I have forgotten the exact words) like this:
How do I stop unwanted unsolicited invitations from being sent to my email list?
Here is a perfect answer. The forum actually worked! This answer makes it abundantly clear the dangers awaiting an unsuspecting elder (ahem) or babe in cyberspace:
“At some point in the recent past you opened your email address book to LinkedIn for the purpose of sending out invitations and you clicked to proceed with the operation before you fully read and understood what was about to happen.
In opening your email address book to LinkedIn without fully reading the instructions you explicitly allowed LinkedIn to send an invitation to *every* email address stored in your email address book.
LinkedIn not only sent an invitation to each of the email addresses in your email address book but also LinkedIn will send out two (2) invitation reminders to each email address in your email address book.
The *only* way you can stop the invitation reminders from going out is by going to your LinkedIn “Inbox/Invitations/Sent” folder where you must open each pending invitation and click on the “Withdraw” option. This must be done for each pending invitation on a one-by-one basis.”
HUH? I WANT OUT!
O.k., I am finally ready to admit I am too old to play this game any longer. I don’t really NEED LinkedIn – never did. I just got too brave, and too arrogant. I thought I was a brilliant “techie” who could navigate through almost anything on the internet. Ha!
HELP! I WANT OUT! I AM EMBARRASSED. NO, I AM MORTIFIED! ALL THESE INVITATIONS WENT OUT, EVEN TO PEOPLE I DON’T KNOW!
So, I closed my LinkedIn account and changed my email password.
I felt free at last!
I felt like a prisoner released from a life sentence.
I thought that would be the end of it.
Maybe not.
I believe my LinkedIn account is now closed, but that doesn’t seem to matter. I am still receiving emails with answers/comments to the Unintentional Invitations question I put into the Forum. The only comforting thing about this is the number of people who are complaining about the very same thing I did.
Maybe I should invite them all to follow my blog? At least my invitations would be INTENTIONAL.
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