Why I Quit Duolingo After a 588 Day Streak

Can you be addicted to a ‘good’ thing?

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I have to admit: I was addicted to Duolingo. Every day for a couple of months, I would spend about two hours on the green owl app. Then, trying to take back control over my learning (and being fully aware that I was not really learning anything), I scaled back to a whopping one hour per day.

It took even more discipline to eventually scale down to 30 minutes a day, which felt like a healthier balance and gave me back valuable time. But just as I thought I had it under control, I hit a wall.

Realistically, I knew that I was wasting my time. But it was only 30 minutes a day, right? Since most of my real language learning came from a textbook, I was using Duolingo as intended — as a supplement to practice what I had already learned, not as a primary learning tool. Yet even so, quitting felt impossible. Until I finally had enough.

One day, I simply deleted the app and never looked back.

Now, my Japanese is improving faster than ever. But I wanted to write this article as a way of reflecting on all the small frustrations that accumulated over time, slowly filling the glass until I reached my breaking point — when my experience with the app shifted from curiosity and enjoyment to frustration and anger. Here are…