Read 'til the End

Your psychology is being used against you. Passive consumption now accounts for roughly 70% of total time spent on Instagram. “Likes” have declined by nearly 48% since 2024*. Instagram’s algorithms now prioritizes watch time and completion rate over likes and comments.

In a world where videos of fireworks mishaps are infinite, the limiting factor for economic growth is no longer the availability of silly cat videos, but the finite amount of time and mental energy a person has to watch them.

*Put on your tin foil hat* Content creators have been leveraging classic psychological concepts that exploit your evolutionary and neurological needs. Hooks like “wait ’til the end” and “the last one” hijack your biological instincts to get you to keep watching.

Recent data, however, shows that “wait for it” captions are seeing a 22% decrease in effectiveness compared to 2023. Users are slowly becoming “algorithmically aware,” often immediately scrolling past videos that use these tropes. This has led to a rise in content that delivers the most important information in the first second.

Do you scroll when a video tells you to “wait until the end,” or do you still find yourself sticking around to see if the payoff is worth it? If you’ve made it this far into the article, below is an AI prompt for you to learn more–hope the payoff was worth it!

How do content creators leverage The Zeigarnik Effect, The Information Gap Theory, Loss Aversion (FOMO), and the Sunk Cost Fallacy, to keep user attention on social media?