Platformed affective withdrawal: Quiet quitting and the refusal of gendered emotional labour on TikTok

IF 4.6 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

New Media & Society Pub Date : 2026-10-09 DOI:10.1177/14614448261488701

Aybüke Büyükkağnıcı

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article examines #quietquitting on TikTok as a platform-mediated articulation of gendered affective withdrawal. While organisational research interprets quiet quitting as reduced discretionary effort or declining work engagement, this study examines how quiet quitting is articulated as a digitally circulated refusal of feminised emotional labour. Drawing on feminist theories of affective labour and critical platform studies, the analysis explores how workers renegotiate expectations of emotional availability within algorithmically structured visibility regimes. The study is based on a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods analysis of 586 TikTok videos shared under #quietquitting between 2020 and 2026. Combining thematic discourse analysis with descriptive engagement indicators, the findings show that creators frequently frame quiet quitting as a refusal of unpaid relational mediation, emotional management, and workplace care. The article introduces the concept of platformed affective withdrawal to explain how narratives of workplace disengagement circulate through algorithmic visibility systems that amplify and individualise gendered labour inequalities.

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平台性情感退出：TikTok上的安静退出和性别情绪劳动的拒绝

本文将TikTok上的“安静退出”作为一种平台介导的性别情感退出表达方式进行研究。虽然组织研究将悄然辞职解释为自由裁量努力减少或工作投入下降，但本研究探讨了如何将悄然辞职表述为数字传播的对女性化情绪劳动的拒绝。借鉴情感劳动和批判平台研究的女权主义理论，该分析探讨了工人如何在算法结构的可见性制度中重新协商情感可用性的期望。该研究基于对2020年至2026年#安静戒烟#下分享的586个TikTok视频进行定性主导混合方法分析。结合主题话语分析和描述性参与指标，研究结果表明，创造者经常将安静辞职定义为拒绝无偿的关系调解、情绪管理和工作场所关怀。本文介绍了平台情感退出的概念，以解释工作场所脱离的叙述如何通过算法可见性系统传播，放大和个性化性别劳动不平等。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

New Media & Society COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

12.70

自引率

8.00%

发文量

274

期刊介绍： New Media & Society engages in critical discussions of the key issues arising from the scale and speed of new media development, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and on both theoretical and empirical research. The journal includes contributions on: -the individual and the social, the cultural and the political dimensions of new media -the global and local dimensions of the relationship between media and social change -contemporary as well as historical developments -the implications and impacts of, as well as the determinants and obstacles to, media change the relationship between theory, policy and practice.