Streak addiction is real, I had one Snapchat streak years ago that was over 1500, the person it was with and I would send one snap a day of nothing really just to keep the streak going. It got to the point that the one snap was the only time I communicated with that person, and it was honestly a relief when the streak finally lapsed. I had a few times where I was camping with no signal and would literally go on hikes with no destination just to find phone signal to send my daily snap to them.
Number go up makes monkey brain happy, even when you’re aware of how dumb it is.
My duolingo streak addiction made me fucking miserable, but I just couldn’t stop. I knew that breaking it would plunge me into a horrible depressive state. I finally broke free after finishing the diamond league and make peace with “good enough”. I haven’t been able to use duolingo ever since, because there’s apparently no way of just using duolingo normally without gamification.
I’m switching over to Babbel when my duo subscription lapses in the fall, much less gamified, actual human speakers for the language I want to learn, and they aren’t trying to shovel AI into everything like duo is
None of these ever worked on me. I see Reddit started doing it too btw.
Same. In fact, streaks tend to anger me because it feels like manipulation to me, which disincentivizes me from doing anything streak-related. I’m not rushing out to the supermarket just bc my points are about to expire, and I’m sure af not paying a subscription kits so they don’t expire.
I will say, with Duolingo I do appreciate the manipulation to keep me going. I probably wouldn’t have spent near as much time on another language if it weren’t for keeping that streak going. I can definitely understand the harm in it being used for maligne purposes. With any tool, it’s who wields it and for what intent.
I feel shame when I go to reddit because I hate seeing “Yaaaay!!! 10 day streak!!! You are addicted woooohooooo!!!”
The only difference is that Reddit’s doesn’t work. You can skip days it will resume counting just fine. It is just a counter of how many days you interacted with the site, for now.
I just dropped my 600 streak in duolingo because it just made me feel like clicking through a chore instead of putting genuine effort into learning a language. I’m looking into some alternatives now
Create your own spaced repetition system, either using something like Anki, or using physical flash cards.
I hated this when battlefield did this with daily missions to unlock things. Like, fml, I just want to enjoy a complete game. Trinkets and skins mean nothing to me.
Man that headline was so hard for me to read for some reason
I uninstalled Duolingo the day they started offering to restore your streak for money.
Gamification.
Employers use it in lieu of paying living wages. Business employ the practice with rewards cards.
Humans physiologically crave competition and the sweet dopamine of accomplishment.
I got hooked once. But its apple watch activity ring, at least my health is improved since then.
