Introduction: How Social Media Knows What You Want to See

Ever wonder why some posts on your social media feed feel like they were picked just for you? It’s not magic, it’s the algorithm at work, quietly learning your interests and connections to serve up content you’ll find engaging. Behind the scenes, it’s piecing together a puzzle based on your actions and interactions. Let’s see how this works in detail …

Content Ranking Begins with Connections

The moment you open your feed, the very first thing the algorithm does is to start collecting signals from your network-your friends, pages you follow, and groups you’re a part of. These broadly fall into three types:

Explicit Actions (Likes, Comments, Shares)

If a friend ’likes’ a post, immediately there is a probable signal to you. If they ‘comment’ or ‘share’ something, say, that post gets more visibility for you.

Implicit Actions (Time Spent, Clicks)

Even if a friend doesn’t interact, the fact that he or she spent time reading a post is captured as interest. Relationships (How close you are to the friend)

The algorithm knows that family members or close friends are more likely to get your attention. It scores your interactions with each friend and prioritizes those with whom you interact more. So, it constantly ranks and re-ranks your connections by the recency, frequency, and intensity of interactions.

The “Content Affinity” Layer

The algorithm doesn’t just stop at showing content your friends interact with; it goes one step deeper:

  • It looks at what kind of content you engage with-are you more into videos, memes, or articles?
  • It takes a closer look at the topics you engage with, such as sports, politics, or tech news. Then it starts drawing a connection.

For example, if you like Tech articles and a friend comments on a tech article, you become more likely to see it. If you have never liked, commented or shared any content related to cooking, then your friend’s cooking post might not show up in your feed.

The takeaway: this algorithm is trying to match your Interest Graph with your connections’ activity graph.

Keep in mind that these algorithms are constantly evolving. They don’t just consider your interactions—they also prioritize trending content. Anything that gains significant traction during a particular hour, day, or week is likely to show up in your feed to keep you engaged with what’s currently popular.

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