Teach Me in 60 Seconds: How Algorithms Decide What Gets Seen

Algorithms don’t judge quality. They reward behavior.

Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Netflix track how people interact with content, not how expensive or important it is. The first signals are brutal and fast: did viewers click, did they stay, did they react?

Watch time matters more than views. A short clip watched to the end beats a long video people abandon halfway. Replays, comments, shares and saves all tell the algorithm, “This is worth showing again.”

Momentum is key. If content performs well in its first few hours, platforms push it wider. If it stalls early, it quietly disappears.

Consistency also counts. Creators who post regularly are rewarded because algorithms favor predictability.

The big takeaway? Algorithms don’t kill good content — indifference does. Make something people finish, talk about, and come back to, and the system will do the rest.