TikTok Quit Videos, Reddit Dissent Subs, and ‘New Heroes’ of the Working Class

• In Event: Labor Politics, Class, and Inequality

Abstract

The American working class has changed dramatically in recent decades. Broad shifts in the economy have caused demographic shifts. Job quality overall has declined alongside ‘neoliberal’ economic and political trends. Alongside these shifts, the flourishing new social media discourse field has allowed this new working class to express itself directly. Though the full breadth of content created by precarious service workers is vast, this study focuses on the specific trend of 'working class heroes' within this discourse. On TikTok, hundreds of millions of views are dedicated to variations on the 'quit video,' with many famed quitters being framed as 'working class heroes.' On Reddit, communities like r/antiwork, r/walmart, and other worker organizing hubs have fostered a vibrant community of worker dissent that includes millions. These expressions suggest the outlines of a new working-class consciousness.

Building on the papers that I presented at APSA in the previous two years, this project is rooted in the research among big-box retail workers I conducted for my recent dissertation. My dissertation research drew on ethnographic immersion; I grew up in the post-industrial rural area where I conducted my research, and I worked for both Walmart and Target. I gathered in-depth interviews with Walmart and Target workers throughout this region, assembling narratives of these individuals’ complex lives. These narratives considered the factors that led individuals reluctantly into retail employment, their thoughtful observations and critiques about the big-box workplace, and the details of how their lives improved after they left big-box retail behind. While this individual narrative approach offers us a nuanced understanding of each worker, such data is necessarily limited in scope. My endeavor with this new research is to broaden the scope of my considerations from the individual level to the level of online communities with millions of voices, considering the values, beliefs, and ideals that are expressed in working-class social media.

Working class struggle for change can take the form of traditional union organizing, as in recent efforts among Starbucks workers or Reddit communities like r/workreform. However, worker agency has also come to be increasingly defined in terms of defiance and desertion. Among the more than 750 million views of #iquit videos on TikTok, several of the most popular videos detail defiant quitting actions by Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Starbucks workers. On worker Reddits like r/walmart and r/target, 'promoting yourself to customer' is among the most popular kinds of posts. Quit posts are likewise some of the most common and popular posts in the thriving 2.4 million user r/antiwork community. These defiant quitting actions are generally rewarded with praise and support, with commentators expressing "pride" in the quitter's "bravery" and "truth." The popularity of these kinds of posts, and the discourse surrounding them, offer a fascinating new figure of the working-class hero. On a more fundamental level, this trend asks us to consider what political agency means for the precarious working class of today.

Several academic discourses are relevant to better understanding these workers and their actions. Sociologists of workplace misbehavior, like Roland Paulsen, Jan Karlsson, and Randy Hodson, offer framing for these workplace activities. The tradition of infrapolitics rooted in James C. Scott and Robin D.G. Kelley helps us to appreciate the political agency of evasion and desertion. More recent commentaries on the quality of these kinds of jobs from Adam Reich, Peter Bearman, David Graeber, and others can provide helpful context. Within political science, a tradition responding to Albert Hirschman’s work reconsiders the value of ‘exit’ as a valid political action – particularly in the works of authors like Robert Taylor, Mark Warren, and the Invisible Committee.

Author

• Noah Shuster, Sarah Lawrence College