How Duolingo uses streaks and notifications to keep users coming back

I really like Duolingo, but I ignore the streak thing because it upsets me all the time that I don’t get a streak even when they try really hard to give me quite generous “streak freezes” because it’s like the app knows I can’t actually keep a streak going. As an ADHD person, I find the concept of a streak overwhelming, partly because I’m unlikely to maintain a streak ever because I just get too distracted and forgetful to go back to something in any kind of habitual way, to the point that if I’m aiming for a streak and then miss a day, I give up completely - and that’s with anything (running, going to the gym etc… so I know myself well enough now not to aim for streaks). Even if the notifications come in at the right time, if I just don’t feel like learning right then and there, I won’t bother and no amount of loss aversion for losing a streak will persuade me to learn if I just don’t feel like it at the time. I find it difficult to force my brain to do things it doesn’t want to do.

For me to stay dedicated to learning something it needs to be either a case of me making a commitment to it, and then acting consistently with my commitment (which is the case for my with academic studies - I make financial commitments to it, so then feel obliged to act accordingly so as not to waste literally thousands of dollars to fail), or it needs to be gamified, such as the case for Duolingo.

Duolingo has gamified learning a language in a way I love to play so that’s why I go back (not regularly enough to maintain a streak, but regularly enough to have learned a fair bit of German).

I did once pay for a year subscription to Duolingo thinking that paying for it would mean I would be more committed, but I wasn’t… and I ended up doing less learning, whereas, when I think I’m going to run out of hearts, I feel extra motivated to not lose my hearts and therefore pay more attention to my learning so I don’t make mistakes.

And now after writing this lengthy comment about Duolingo, I’m going to go play some more learning language right now!

External vs internal motivation.