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52 percent want quitting their job to be viral event, survey says

In research to examine social media platforms, an odd statistic is buried. Many Americans seem to have been moved by the dancing YouTube quitter.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

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A scene from Marina Shifrin's famous video. Marina Shifrin/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Privacy? It's for losers.

Respect for your boss? Oh, shove it.

Fame? Now that's what I'm talking about.

This seems to sum up the cultural ethos that Web has engendered and accelerated. And it's one that seems to be seeping into every aspect of what they used to call real life.

It's so prevalent that it can even be seen in research. I have before my eyes, for example, an exclusive viewing of research that examined how much people trust social media platforms for product recommendations.

This was, with hearty coincidence, sponsored by Shoutly. This is not a company that tries to help loud people assert themselves even more upon society. Although, in a way, it is. Its concern is paying people to recommend products to their social media followers.

Naturally, this research is brimming with astounding insight, such as that 84 percent of these 500 American respondents find online ads to be annoying. And, please prostrate yourself, 82 percent just adore personal recommendations for their shopping.

Buried, however, in the bowels of this barely digestible data roughage is something quite fetching: 52 percent of Americans "plan" to quit their jobs with socially shareable style.

This is understandable. People don't merely want to be famous. They need to be. Never has there been a time when you are either known for something, or good for nothing.

So these respondents, their souls clearly dimmed by their working experience, "plan" to quit their jobs in a style to make them famous.

7 percent want to follow in the footsteps of Marina Shifrin, the famous YouTube quitter who filmed a video resignation late at night from her Taiwanese animation company and surged to fame.

Another 7 percent "plan" to quit with the help of a musical band.

" Hey, boss, here's Mick Jagger and he'd like to sing about my satisfaction."

A further 7 percent insist they "plan" to quit "in a blaze of glory." A socially incendiary prospect, that.

You must, though, bathe in the thought-processes of the 5 percent who insisted they "plan" to quit by "sending a pornographic Tweet from the company Twitter handle."

I am troubled, as I'm sure you are, that there wasn't greater specification of what this pornographic tweet might entail.

Would this tweet be accompanied with a picture of them in flagrante and the epithet "f*** this job"? Might it entail an image of some popular porn star with the caption: "I'm tired of faking it"?

You might have some sympathies with the 3 percent who "plan" to quit "in an open letter posted online with my grievances." That would surely have viral impact.

I will close by focusing your attention on the 5 percent of these respondents who claimed that they "plan" to quit while in drag.

In this world, the filmic, dramatic and eminently shareable possibilities know no bounds.