I think this is a recent development, I've been seeing the same thing on Facebook's Reels. I believe it's taking advantage of the algorithm, by providing you th

I think this is a recent development, I've been seeing the same thing on Facebook's Reels. I believe it's taking advantage of the algorithm, by providing you the bare minimum to think that there might be a followup or punchline. But there isn't: it's just the one picture. By the time you realize you've been had, you've already watched long enough for the algorithm to silently register your interest. I hate black-box recommendation algorithms because of this. You have no idea what it's inferred from your behavior, so simply waiting too long is enough to bork your feed. How long is too long? No idea.