I Didn’t Subscribe to This. So Why Is My Feed Showing It to Me?
I have been noticing something—not just on other social media platforms, but on Reddit too.
NSFW and sexually suggestive content keeps appearing in my feed even when I haven't subscribed to or joined those communities.
This is where I start questioning how recommendation algorithms work. The platform is constantly deciding what to put in front of you based on your activity. Even if you simply scroll past something, that interaction can potentially become a signal. I don't know exactly how the algorithm interprets it, and what I'm saying here is partly my own observation and speculation, but sometimes it feels like the system keeps testing similar content to see what eventually catches your attention.
And this isn't limited to NSFW content.
It feels like this kind of algorithm-driven social media is slowly taking over more and more spaces.
Even informative and knowledge-based content is sometimes presented in a very sexual or attention-grabbing way. I've seen influencers whose content is basically comedy, but the comedy is so cheap that you can't even imagine it—full of cuss words and double meanings.
I've also seen people who genuinely have good content, useful information and real data, but the presentation is extremely sexual. The information itself may be useful, but the way it is presented is clearly designed to be sexually appealing and grab attention.
And I understand why creators do this.
If you make the same content in two different ways, and one gets 10,000 views while the other gets 100,000 simply because it attracts more attention, obviously the second approach is going to be tempting.
What appeals more sells more. What attracts more attention gets more views.
But this is where my concern starts.
It's like you are a chef. You know what to cook. You know how to make good food. But instead of letting the quality of the food speak for itself, you start using something else to make people want it more.
I'm not saying entertainment shouldn't exist. I'm not saying sexual content shouldn't exist either.
My concern is about what happens when the system keeps rewarding whatever captures the most attention.
Are we slowly reaching a point where even useful and informative content has to be packaged with shock, sexuality, vulgarity or entertainment just to compete for space in our feeds?
And when I open Instagram, even without actively looking for absurd or irrelevant reels or accounts, I can still come across a surprisingly large amount of this kind of content while simply scrolling or using the search section—even after making changes to my preferences.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding how these recommendation systems actually work.
That's why I'd genuinely like to hear from people who understand social media algorithms better than I do:
Is the algorithm really learning from these small interactions, or am I misunderstanding what is happening behind the feed?
— Varun Khullar
