Algorithm Fatigue = Scribbler Opportunity
We've stopped consuming news and entertainment as separate things. They live on the same platforms, use the same engagement tricks, and hook the same brain chemistry. Whether you're doomscrolling headlines or binging prestige TV, the machine is feeding you the same loop, just with different fuel.
News runs on cortisol. Threats, collapse, the world ending every news cycle. Entertainment runs on dopamine. Cliffhangers, loot drops, and your favorite character getting killed off. Different chemicals, same cycle: hit, tolerance, crash, craving. The crash isn't a bug; it's the product. Doomscrolling fuels itself. So does "just one more episode."
But here’s what I’ve noticed in scribbler dens and game dev studios: audiences are tired of living in algorithmic taste jail. They’re hungry for stories that feel human-recommended, not machine-optimized. That’s Algorithm Fatigue. And it’s your creative opportunity.
The Split-Brain Audience
Today's audience is fractured but overlapping. The person grinding VALORANT at 2 AM might also be buying Marvel IMAX tickets. The true crime obsessive might be deep into The Sopranos rewatch. The real divide isn’t generational, it’s intentional vs accidental discovery. Some stories we hunt down. Others ambush us mid-scroll.
Back on the ARGs for Alias, Lost, and Heroes, the fans chasing Easter eggs online were a different beast from casual viewers who stumbled into a rerun. Same story, completely different entry points. That tension between seekers and scrollers? It’s only gotten more intense. If you're only building for one mode, you're missing half the room.
How to Beat Algorithm Fatigue
Build Two Front Doors
Your opening must work for people seeking you out and ones stumbling in. The Last of Us fungal expert interview? Prestige TV for HBO fans, nightmare fuel for TikTok. One story, multiple entry points.
Design Psychological Off-Ramps
Let audiences leave satisfied. Andor uses three-episode arcs, The Bear keeps episodes tight, Hades ends runs at boss fights. Give people permission to stop without feeling like quitters.
Make Concepts That Overflow
In VALORANT, we dropped lore across cinematics, voice lines, and even AMAs so no one platform could contain the whole picture. The spillover fueled endless fan speculation the algorithm couldn’t predict or control.
Break the Taxonomy
Blur categories so the algorithm can't trap you. Mike White’s fantastic show, The White Lotus, is mystery, satire, and comedy all at once. When Netflix can’t file you neatly, humans have to describe you, and human recommendations beat SkyNet suggestions every time.
Manage the Comedown
Decide what emotional state you leave people in. Marvel post-credit scenes release tension, FromSoft revelations drop when your adrenaline crashes post-boss fight. Don’t just hook attention, design how it gets released.
The Ambiguity Advantage
Recommendation engines only feed you more of what you’ve already consumed. Watched one true crime doc? Congrats, that’s your personality now, according to YouTube. But algorithms choke on ambiguity, and that’s where your creativity is key.
Stories that resist easy categorization force genuine human conversation. Think about how people actually recommend Everything Everywhere All at Once: “It’s like… a multiverse action comedy about doing taxes? But also about immigrant families? Just watch it, I can’t explain.”
That stumbling, inadequate description is more powerful than any algorithmic match.
Anti-Algorithm Tactics
Here are ways to bake algorithm resistance into your work:
- Genre-blend deliberately: Mix thriller pacing with workplace comedy, romance with body horror.
- Tone-shift mid-story: Let characters be funny in serious moments, serious in funny ones.
- Create unsearchable moments: Scenes that only make sense in context can’t be clipped effectively. The only way to get the payoff is to watch the full piece.
- Build conversation gaps: Leave spaces that demand discussion to fill.
- Embrace productive confusion: Let audiences feel smart for figuring something out.
- Design human bridges: Make content that requires a personal recommendation to discover.
- Craft offline artifacts: Create things that live beyond the feed—songs, art, memes that circulate in group chats.
The Personalization Problem
Soon, AI will cut films to your preferences, games will rewrite narratives to your playstyle. Every viewer will get their own version. We can either fight that and lose, or we can incorporate personalization into the art itself.
Build stories robust enough to survive multiple interpretations. Use the adaptation as commentary on the medium. Make the algorithm’s interference visible and meaningful.
The Human Test
News and entertainment both run on chemical hits. Algorithm Fatigue is the craving for something different, a human signal cutting through the machine noise. Stop thinking about beating the algorithm. Start thinking about creating moments that feel irreplaceably human.
Ask yourself: What’s the “you have to see this” moment in your story? The scene that makes someone grab their friend’s arm and say, “Just watch this part.”
The audience will always choose the emotional hit. But you decide what kind of hit you’re selling. Are you feeding the machine’s endless hunger, or are you creating the stories that remind people why personal connections matter? That choice shapes not just your work, but the world you’re helping to build.
