Opinion Writing

I use Duolingo every day, and my first thought was: this app is addicting. There's a reason why so many people (unfortunately myself included) have streaks that are hundreds of days and many years long. But then I asked myself: when has addiction ever been a good thing? Even when an app claims its main goal is to help people learn languages, everything should be used in moderation, so spending hours upon hours on any single app (think Instagram doom scrolling) is not healthy. This opinion article argues about the downsides of Duolingo, including its use of superficial incentives and the artificial sense of connection it creates with users, and links it to other similar companies...