"Duolingo's Sneaky Tactics: How They Keep You Coming Back for More!"

“Me estoy cansando de estos recordatorios pasivo-agresivos”, afirma un usuario de Reddit. Y no son los únicos que se han quejado de los mensajes de Duolingo. Estos van desde textos que critican a los usuarios por no utilizar la aplicación de aprendizaje de idiomas, hasta imágenes del emblemático búho luciendo triste, o incluso casi moribundo cuando los usuarios no inician sesión durante unos días.

“He’s just really tired of having to remind everyone to do their lessons, obviously,” said Duolingo’s head of social media on TikTok in reference to the owl’s sad-looking appearance, making it clear that the popular learning platform is using passive aggression to keep users engaged.

More than a few parents have complained that Duolingo is making their children cry by making them feel guilty for not using the app. And many internet users criticize the platform’s marketing strategy as far from friendly. Yet despite the criticism, this aggressive approach is working. Every day, 24.2 million people log in to learn one of the 42 languages offered by the world’s most downloaded educational app, which has over 80 million users.