10 Reasons Why I Think the Duolingo App is Bringing About Its Own Downfall

If you had asked me a year ago what I think of Duolingo, I’d have probably told you it was the second coming of God. And you know what? It WAS true for a long, long time. The concept of having new languages at our disposal, all for free, was a mind-boggling, game-changing one, even if it was unguided and even if it was just setting a wobbly foundation. I was obsessed with the Duolingo app, religiously doing lessons every single day, maintaining a streak that I was proud of (got up to 818 days), and recommending it to anyone who was looking for a way to get started on the path to learning a new language. It was this enthusiasm, perhaps, that came back to bite me, a weird karma or Uno reverse of sorts, because now, I can’t stand the app.

Every single feature that I knew wasn’t helping me much but ignored because something is better than nothing, turned into things about the app that I’ve come to be disgusted with. And every feature that was at first seen as an improvement on the app, morphed into a jeering mess that now mocks users for various reasons that I will cover in this post. There’s a living, thriving anger at the world in general because of the various systems it uses to “run” and a part of that is directed at this seemingly inconspicuous but very threatening app. (Have you seen the Duolingo Owl? It’s fecking bloodthirsty!)

At the rate that it’s going, I’m very sure that Duolingo’s clientele will soon only be people who want to learn as a hobby than this very eclectic mix of every type of person on the planet. And all for what? When you turn an app/business like this from something that caters to everyone into something that caters only to people who can afford it, what’s the difference between you and the current education system? What sets you apart? Nothing.

And I get it. I get that you need the money to run the business and that you also have to make money out of so much effort that you’re putting into it. But money isn’t the only reason why the Duolingo app has gone from hero to zero in the blink of an eye. I’m here to tell you about the rest.

So buckle up as I take you through the 10 reasons why I think Duolingo is bringing about its own downfall. These reasons are all interconnected with each other, so please bear with me. Also, CAUTION! Because things are going to get real salty over here.

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1. The Constant Change in Structure and Flow

The thing about education is that it is a kind of a paradox but it does not always need structure. You can imbibe it from the most innocuous of things from multiple places but also, a structured education could be the best thing ever. When you decide to go freely, it’s up to you to decide what to take and what to leave. But when there’s a structure in place, you try to work through it because it’s there for a reason, right? This progress is turned on its head when the structure keeps shifting and changing, because how is one supposed to keep up? Are we supposed to focus on the learning or on figuring out the changes in ‘flows’ and ‘trees’ and other senseless, unnecessary shifts?

If anyone says, “Oh but life is dynamic, life is fluid,” I swear I will lose my head. I KNOW life is dynamic, life is fluid. I just want one thing in my life that’s simple and the Duolingo app was that for so long. But now, it’s going all philosophical on me, making my life harder than it needs to be, giving me stress that I have enough of anyway. And the worst part is, if there was just one change, I’d probably shut up and go about my life without complaining. But when the whole app is being its own Pied Piper and going off a cliff? NOPE.

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2. A Lesson on Money-Mindedness

I’m never saying that you shouldn’t have Super Duolingo or that you shouldn’t do what you need to do for profits. Money is important because unfortunately, it is what fuels the world. But when it comes in and plays such a huge part in changing the essence of your app and what it was created for, you probably need to take a step back and reevaluate your priorities. Your users were once your priority. Being a great, easy, affordable, interesting place to learn new languages was your priority. Making the experience fun for users was your priority.

But you know what your priority is right now?

MONEY.

And that takes you back several steps on the ‘interesting’ scale.

My focus in this point are the gems. Duolingo has this system where every time you complete a daily challenge, you get a certain number of gems. Which is a great way of incentivizing learning. But when you tie money in with this, you tend to piss people off, because you’re the one who started this system. Now you’re asking me money for the upkeep of a system that I didn’t even ask for! And for what? So that I can do 10 exercises and get 5 gems but then you’ll take 10 gems each time I *attempt* a fancy extra exercise that you set up? No, thank you.

Until a few months ago, I had accumulated about 8000 gems from years of having spent my time on the Duolingo app. But then, the evil Owl began to demand gems each time I did an extra exercise – something that was free and fun earlier but now only pisses me off even more – and now I’m down to 500. You know what I need to do if I want gems? Pay money. Gems. Which were an incentive that Duo started. I have to pay money. Hell no. This is reason 2 why I shut that app down without regret.

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3. Forcing Toxic Competition on the “Leaderboard”

I’m not going to say that having a leaderboard is bad. It can be motivating in a lot of situations. But the way Duolingo does leaderboards is toxic AF and I’m not going to back down on this one.

Every week, you’ve got to work to see yourself on that leaderboard. If you get on the leaderboard by doing some exercises in that effed up tree or even the extra ‘match madness’ or ‘ramp up’ sessions, you have to watch your back if you’re in the top 7. Because Duo will constantly be on your tail, saying things like, “You dropped out of the top 7! ☹” or “XYZ took your #3 spot! ☹” and so on until you get kicked to the middle and then radio silence until you get to the bottom 5. If you’re still in the bottom 5 at the end of the week, then you get demoted to the lower level.

I thought I left this behind when I finished college. But Duolingo apparently has different ideas, because even though it started off as an app to ease our stress with education, it has quickly (d)evolved into something that is frighteningly similar to what it said it was fighting.

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4. More Money, More Mistakes

This elicits a massive eyeroll every time I see it or even as much as remember it. It is revolting that a real world narrative that we are fighting against – more money = can make mistakes – is implemented with such gay abandon here. Every time you make a mistake, Duo is in your face, reminding you that, “Hey! You know what? Get Super Duolingo and make unlimited mistakes.” It’s basically saying, “Pay money, get Super Duolingo, and make as many mistakes as you want, no questions asked.” What does that say, really, if not for it being a commentary on the real world? What, did they think we wouldn’t notice? FFS!

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5. Timing Lessons

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A continuation of point 3, if you will. Again, I have nothing against timed lessons. Wait, that’s a lie. I now despise anything that’s timed because I feel like you cannot box knowledge in like that. I panic when faced with a timed challenge and end up feeling dumb, something that chips away at my morale. So when I discovered Duolingo all those years ago, I was ecstatic, because here finally was a place where I could learn things at my own pace and not at what felt like knifepoint. I didn’t care if there was no teacher teaching me. I could figure this out on my own!

And for quite a while, I did. Slowly and steadily, I was making progress.

But the extras that the app has, like the ‘match madness’ or ‘ramp up’ lessons, are timed, to the point where you have to figure out how you can get through to the end with that ticking timer in the corner staring you down. And the thing that irritates me the most is the fact that if you don’t get the exercise done in that time, you lose the gems that you invested in this exercise, which if you don’t have enough of, you have to pay for, as we’ve covered before. Tell me this, Duolingo: Are you trying to teach me and make the experience fun for me, or are you making fun OF me? Because at this point, I genuinely don’t know the difference. “Eh, they’ll pay,” or “Eh, they’ll get over it,” must be your constant response every time someone on the app flubs it.

But let me make it easy for you: You are not helping. Not anymore. So change. Or lose a bunch of users who have been loyal so far. Your call. But I can tell you don’t care, so…

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6. Advertising: Do It But Don’t Overdo It

Ads are an important part of revenue and revenue is crucial to keep the app going. I am a YouTuber. I get it. But to do it at the expense of learners, showing ads while we are learning, breaks concentration. You have unskippable ads, by the end of which, our flow is broken and we have to jump start our brains back into activity. Advertise where necessary. Not in learners’ faces and not by shouting wordlessly that money is more important to you than user experiences on the app.

If you boast about being in line with classroom standards, then MAINTAIN THEM! You won’t see an ad barge into a classroom demanding students’ attention, will you? There’s a certain decorum that a classroom setting demands because it puts the students’ education first. If you say that you follow those standards, then make sure to give that experience by putting those very students first. It really isn’t that difficult.

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7. Incentives and Punishments

Duolingo is a stark example of the tired YA trope, “I’m not like other girls.” By telling us that it’s not like other apps, it is doing what it needs to do to market itself. Which is fine. But it TELLS us. It doesn’t show us. Its actions don’t match its words. And just like in the YA trope where a character says “I’m not like other girls,” before promptly playing into patriarchal stereotypes, this app also boasts of how much better it is than classroom learning and then promptly does everything that students hate classrooms for.

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The biggest thing that stands out to me here is the incentives and punishments.

If you do a perfect lesson, Duo will give you gems or a double XP (which is a different trap in itself because it forces you to be on the app for that much longer). But if you make a mistake (for all regular Duolingo users like me), then you will face punishments, which is that you will lose lives. And if you make 5 mistakes, you’ll have to wait until you can participate again. 5 mistakes? Really? That’s the kind of low bar you’re setting? That’s the kind of leeway you’re giving us after saying we can learn at our own pace?

But you know what Duo will say to this? “F you, if you want to make unlimited mistakes, then get Super Duolingo! PAY UP!” And here I am, glaring at it while shaking my head because at this point, I feel like it’s beyond redemption.

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8. Streak = Attendance!

Schools and colleges run on the logic that if you don’t attend enough, you aren’t intelligent enough to absorb the lessons. Or if you don’t attend enough, you don’t want to learn. They think that those are the only reasons why someone would skip classes. There is some truth to the point that if you attend, you have a higher chance of learning. I’m not denying that. But to take away some privileges because you didn’t attend such-and-such number of days in a row doesn’t make any sense. The Duolingo app does exactly this.

Given, it’s an incentive, an urge to maintain the streak that we don’t have to keep up just because it’s human nature. Duo might tell us that we don’t have to act upon it. But does that mean it’s any less stressful, trying to maintain a streak while living with the irrational fear that not maintaining a streak will bring about the apocalypse?

When I was on that 818-day streak, I was constantly under strain, scared that the streak would snap. I didn’t know what would happen, just that I didn’t want it to happen. And when I finally ended that streak, voluntarily no less, I cannot tell you the relief that I felt. Like I didn’t have to carry that burden anymore. It’s a heavy metaphor, but one I felt starkly.

I still catch myself running through my mind once it turns midnight, thinking, “Oh, I’ve got to maintain my stre-“ and I catch myself mid-sentence, my lips curving into a smile because no, I don’t need to maintain my stre- anymore! I’ll go mark my attendance in a different school, thank you very much.

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9. Retaining Users >>>>> User Experience

I don’t know if I can add anything to this point because that is what it is. Duolingo is now so focused on keeping users on the app, it is turning a blind eye to everything that is actually important. User experience doesn’t matter to them anymore. The fact that people are logging in to learn doesn’t matter to them anymore. It’s main focus is retaining users than teaching them anything of value. They’ll do whatever it takes to show the numbers, but what those numbers are experiencing? They don’t give two hoots. At least that’s what it feels like. And this is what users will remember, right? That the moment the app got the boost it needed, it began treating its users as expendable. It’s callous, and that’s putting it mildly.

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10. Duolingo Just Doesn’t Care Anymore

In the end, it feels like the app just doesn’t care anymore, given that so many real life salient points about the culture in question are left out of the process. I understand that one app cannot possibly teach us everything, but it sweeps aside even the most basic of points that we’d benefit by if we were to use the language. I don’t want to know how a fish drinks oil! I just want to know what to say or not to say when I’m confronted with a social situation where I have to use the language I’m learning. It’s not that difficult to understand and it doesn’t take that much of an effort to show your users that you care. But I guess you’re way past that point and have joined the conglomerate of businesses that don’t give a single f*ck. Mark Manson would be proud, I guess.

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Do you use the Duolingo app? If yes, what are some changes you’ve seen over the years that piss you off? Are any on this list? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you!

I’ll see you in the next blog post – definitely a less caustic one than this.

Until next time, keep reading, keep learning, and add melodrama to your life! ❤

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