"QuitTok": The Online Quitting Trend And Our Social Media Obsession

Recently, there was a hype on TikTok named QuitTok or LoudQuitting where young professionals quit their jobs publicly on their social media accounts, and even went as far as recording and publishing the private conversations they had with their bosses.

Though this 'loud quitting' trend has brought some attention to the young adults' lack of willingness to deal with issues, and to poor management in companies, I believe the real eyebrows are being raised by those questioning the state of our society and how social media has infiltrated even the most private corners of our lives, be it personal or professional. These digital intrusive posts leave us with the bad taste that above any relationship, life situation, or experience, we deem more valuable digital fame, attention, virtual authority, and the viral effect.

We are creating, permitting, and perpetuating a culture where attention reigns over anything else. Our compulsive relationship to social media has evolved into an addiction that is silent, perennial, cross-generational, and what is worse, with no diagnosis nor cure.

Trends such as QuitTok also alarm us because they show a sad reality: we are no longer interested in learning the lessons from real life; rather, we are focused on obtaining online validation for our actions, whether they are righteous or not. We've gotten from focusing on our life experiences, to focusing solely on the virtual aftermath of the experiences. We have forgotten to “enjoy the ride” because we prioritise capturing and anticipating the dopamine hit we will get when we post it online. And, to make things worse, the dopamine hit is getting harder and harder to get as content creators compete with AI-generated cheap content and the attention-grabbing race from the masses. What this leaves us with is a much higher willingness to go the extra mile to win the attention of the audience. In short, shocking the average zombie-scroller is not as easy as it was some years ago.

But, what about the consequences of sharing a private conversation with your boss while quitting?, you might ask. Well, I believe these young professionals are aware of the potential consequences (such as being regarded as untrustworthy by future employers), and the fact that they do it anyway suggests they believe there are potentially better professional opportunities in growing their own audience and online community. Consider the most famous one, Gabrielle Judge, The AntiWork GirlBoss, who has brought significant attention to her channel and has grown from this hype (we’re even talking about her here!) :) Has she lost future opportunities?—you tell me.

What is both, fascinating and frustrating, is seeing provocateurs conduct perpetual self-promotion campaigns until they catch the algorithmic wave and become the new “artist”, the new influencer, the new online modern god. It’s no longer merely about talent (it’s not easy to grow a channel!); it’s also about how well you understand the algorithm and how far you can go to create the dopamine hit on the audience.

So, what will the future bring in this attention-seeking, self-promoting society where the most controversial narcissistic ones take the lead? Will we go back to the good’old days where it was widely accepted that these behaviors were not normal, or will we continue to adapt to an online culture where the harms of social media end up in profits for the few? How can we stop our addiction—not just limiting the screen time of our kids but also our screen time? How can we self-regulate the incessant search for the next dopamine hit, the next like, the next swipe, the next validating thumbs-up? And, how do we co-exist with the desire of having to be always visible and build our personal / professional brands—or else!

These are questions I don’t have an answer to. From my personal experience, the desire to obtain algorithmic success can be tamed by consciously closing our computer, putting out our phone, and becoming mentally and physically present in the real world. Additionally, constantly reminding ourselves that our values, ethics and morals are not to be traded for quick fame. We have the capacity to decide to live on a virtual diet, to control our attention, and to declutter our mind. We should strive to become minimalistic virtual consumers and collected virtual creators. At the very least, we should raise awareness about how, as over-stimulated adults, we are increasingly feeling disconnected, lonely and burned-out. And it might well be, among other things, because we're addicted to the algorithmic dopamine hit.