Yeah i uninstalled
The aggressive notifications to do a lesson are literally why I use it. I have ADHD. Without the owl threatening to kill me and everyone I know, I would forget about it and forget all that I’ve learned so far. 😔
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 3 days ago
cley_faye@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It could be aggressively persistent without sounding like a psycho, too, no? I mean, I have no frame of reference, but I sort of assume that constant reminders would work as well as constant belittling reminders. Maybe I’m wrong.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 days ago
Ideally, for myself, it would be like getting a dog’s attention and getting called a good boy when I actually complete a lesson.
Dojan@pawb.social 2 days ago
Positive reinforcement wins. You’re a good boy!
ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
The gamification is genuinely so helpful. You can get it through other apps like habitica with some setup. I have ADHD too but I found Duolingo good for habit building but jot the greatest for actual language learning
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Personally, once I realized the gamification wasn’t actually helping me learn the language, engaged or not, I started resenting it more than anything. The app cared more about my streak than I did and when I decided to deliberately let mine end, it would use freezes and shit to keep it going despite missed days. And then nag me to buy more freezes which it would just give me as rewards for doing a single lesson that day.
After that, all the gamification shit was annoying because it meant I had to sit through like 5 screens of “rewards” I didn’t give a shit about after each lesson.
The thing that made me dislike the gamification was the p2w mechanics of the timed challenges. “Oh you ran out of time, but you can buy an extension!” How the fuck is buying an extension going to help learn a language?
And from there I realized that the multiple choice form of the questions meant my test taking skills were carrying me as much as or more than any language skills I was developing. There’s only so many legal sentences you can build from a limited set of words and if they usually have only one verb option, it’s not going to help learn the different verbs.
ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I have trouble sticking with things. Gamification is absolutely manipulative but it also worked for me. I tried to keel that streak going even when it did nothing for my goals. So I kept the gamification but changed the app so that I’m manipulating myself to further my goals and it works just as well
shneancy@lemmy.world 2 days ago
the streak is half the work, the other half is actually having done the thing. if i just tap “ya i did that” (when i didn’t) because i want to keep the streak going it’s meaningless
ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I do think we tend to underestimate how much you can accomplish with 5 minutes of study a day. My main problem with Duolingo is that it isn’t effective, but if I spent the same 5 minutes using anki or a better tool I get results