I'm curious: How do social media platforms' content recommendation systems work? For example, what factors prioritize what appears in a user's feed? How does AI come into play here? What's the general approach to this?
How do social media algorithms work?
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A year ago, I was only watching Python coding tutorials on Instagram, then suddenly my feed was flooded with photo editing and Photoshop tutorial videos. It was as if the algorithm had whispered in my ear, "Here’s something you might be interested in!" Since then, I’ve always wondered how the algorithm makes its choices.
What surprised me the most was how they analyze our attention span. For example, if you stop on a post for more than 3 seconds, they count that as an interest indicator. I even ran an experiment: when I quickly swiped past short videos, the algorithm stopped suggesting tech content, but when I started pausing to watch Reels, recipe videos started appearing too. The secret lies right there—they continuously track and model user behavior.