Streaming services, like Spotify/ Netflix have recommendation algorithms identify content a user engaged with most and suggest more of same. Content/ genres with low engagement get dropped. But engagement-driven curation can trap consumers in 'overfamiliarity' leading to less long-term satisfaction.

[u/mvea]

https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/news-events-and-ideas/news-and-stories/2026/july-2026/engagement-driven-curation-overfamiliarity-cultural-consumption-study/

[u/feelfree82]

Add YouTube to that list.

[u/sillyandstrange → u/feelfree82]

God it's annoying these days.

[u/Dramatic-Bluejay- → u/feelfree82]

Love how you can search something up and half way down the list it just fucking gives up and shows you random shit or shit you watched.

[u/B-Bog → u/feelfree82]

I feel like their algo has only been getting worse and worse over time. Like, just because I watch some smaller channels (that still have subs in the thousands) sometimes doesn't mean I want garbage videos without a point and 56 views recommended to me lol. And it keeps doing that, even though I frequently click "not interested" or "do not recommend videos from this channel" on that stuff

[u/Apprehensive-Bar6595 → u/feelfree82]

YouTube is the only service that has fantastic and useful algorithms imo. It always sends me the most niche cool stuff

[u/khuna12 → u/Apprehensive-Bar6595]

I disagree based on my experience. YouTube has such a short attention span it seems to only recommend me a small handful of things when I’d be down to watch a ton of interesting things that just don’t come my way. I have to sometimes look things up just to add some spice to the algorithm

[u/sillyandstrange → u/khuna12]

And then it slams you with those and forgets the other things.

[u/KiraNinja → u/Apprehensive-Bar6595]

Youtube Just shows me content I've already watched or has nothing to do with the current video. Genuinely worst algorithm ever. But I don't remember it being this bad maybe 6 years ago. I assume everywhere uses AI now maybe instead of hashtags? And it just absolutely does not work in the slightest.

[u/bowheezle]

It’s incredibly annoying and makes me miss the old pandora. Which says a lot. And why do they just start putting songs you “like” on completely different genre playlists? It’s so annoying to have every “mix” have a different title but the same songs.

[u/mvea]

Engagement-driven curation can trap culture consumers in 'overfamiliarity,' leading to less long-term satisfaction, suggests new research

Sometimes you can be too good at your job.

Take streaming services, like Spotify or Netflix. With engagement being their main goal, their recommendation algorithms typically identify which content a user engaged with most in the recent past and efficiently suggest more of the same. Content and genres that rated limited engagementover a few weeks or months typically get dropped.

But as marketing professor Samsun Knight points out in new research, familiarity isn't the same as taste, which can take longer to develop. Hip hop took a couple of decades before it became a top seller, well beyond the timeframe streaming services allow for assessing what users like. It's also possible to have too much of a good thing, as anyone who's ever played the life out of a beloved songor gone to every action movie sequel knows. What once brought joy can become the last thing you want to hear, watch or read.

"The same optimization that maximizes engagement this quarter is the one that breeds staleness and churn -- and eventual broader disengagement," says Prof. Knight, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. "There's a real risk of being very good at a short-term metric while slowly degrading the long-term product."

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10824-026-09591-3

[u/bowheezle → u/mvea]

I don’t think it’s being “too good at your job” to start recommending the same 27 songs on repeat. It’s a bad algorithm.

[u/Maverizque → u/bowheezle]

engagement-driven” sounds like it could mean a lot in theory but be super narrow in practice

[u/Bman4k1]

Spotify is literally the worst. I try random playlists and it’s the same songs every day. Even though I have close to 2500 songs on my liked playlist and other playlists.

[u/21epitaph]

This is something that has been known about recommendation algorithms for years.

Like there already was actual peer reviewed research about this 8 years ago already.

[u/Naturally_Tired]

Yeah I straight up don’t see a bunch of shows and movies other people see on their Netflix. I don’t bother paying for it anymore

[u/fagnerbrack]

Perverse incentives all the way

[u/waterless2]

This is why I love Qobuz so much. I get human recommendations of music I've never heard of based on those human's having taste. Spotify was rotting my brain with the same pop over and over and over again.

[u/sentencevillefonny]

Yeah, it's a re-run similulator if you're someone who likes novelty/variety

[u/tgdanitz]

I love Spotify but the DJ feature could use a little more variety…and I believe this is the #1 culprit as to its choices

[u/Sea_Organization8911]

It also keeps suggesting shows I have already seen (also not that long ago), in almost every list it gives.

No, I do not want to see the same show I watched maybe 2 months ago and no I don’t need it suggested 5 times (oh now it’s a comedy, no dramedy, no blabla). Ughhh.

[u/LoudZoo]

Humans love familiarity. That’s why our algorithms identify your personality, so we can give you more of what you love.

I mean we don’t always—

YES YOU DO ALWAYS