Whether you are watching Facebook newsfeeds, or YouTube, or Netflix, or something similar, those organizations have demonstrated the true value of your eyeballs to their websites to which that all of them have added autoplay features to the video that is streaming in front of you. The bottom line is that the more engaged you are with any particular website the more that the providers of such can improve their viewership numbers, advertising numbers, and so forth. While it is true that for motivated people one can actually shut off the autoplay feature, there is something rather strange about the experience that precludes certain people from doing so. Whether the media being displayed is inherent mesmerizing itself, or you are just too lazy or lethargic to click away, or you are curious, or bored, or possibly even desiring to watch and watch and watch, the autoplay feature does keep more people on particular websites for longer periods of time, and some of those people, for considerably longer periods.
In the world of television with commercial advertising, keeping viewers engaged is a trickier route to take, simply because most advertisers want to take up the full screen with their advertisements, and also because most shows being shown on the half or full hour, that people know that they will have a few minutes of commercials before the next program begins. One way to get around this, is to utilize some of the same tricks that streaming media does, which is to take the previous program and reduced its screen size, while adding the pending program to the corner with some previews, and perhaps have some banner ads around the television, with the hope that you can rope in your viewer into watching the next program and then hit them with commercials at the ten or twelve minute mark, after you have gotten their attention.
The streaming media autoplay is a feature that can be shut off, but many people just don't get around to doing that, and the brilliance or insidious of such an autoplay feature is the fact that so many people allow the autoplay to be the master of what they are viewing rather than taking responsibility themselves for what they really want to watch. This implies strongly that for a significant amount of people and for a significant amount of time, that viewers of streaming media aren't necessarily watching what they are watching because they really love the program, but rather that they are watching the media to fill in their free time because they are bored and rather blasé in their overall outlook.
Everyone has seen some version of a commercial stating that "I bet you can't eat just one", and often times this is true, because the particular product does taste so good, or doesn't fill you up enough, or whatever, and you really do eat more than one. The streaming media autoplay takes advantage of the fact that for many people, watching streaming media is a relatively passive experience, so that the providers of such makes sure to keep the punchbowl full so as to keep viewers watching, whether that is what they really want to do, our ought to do or not, the bottom line is that it works. At least, at this point, there is a way to stop the autoplay feature, so that the ultimate control in still in our own hands, and eyes.