this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
168 points (99.4% liked)
Technology
73331 readers
4590 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Streak addiction is real, I had one Snapchat streak years ago that was over 1500, the person it was with and I would send one snap a day of nothing really just to keep the streak going. It got to the point that the one snap was the only time I communicated with that person, and it was honestly a relief when the streak finally lapsed. I had a few times where I was camping with no signal and would literally go on hikes with no destination just to find phone signal to send my daily snap to them.
Number go up makes monkey brain happy, even when you’re aware of how dumb it is.
Idle games like cookie clicker exploit this to a shocking degree.
Ironically, cookie clicker is actually a parody of idle games, and once you get far enough, there is genuine strategy (assuming you enjoy doing math).
Still doesn't change the fact the objective is to make number go up
Every gamer should try cookie clicker once as it really does expose how many games work under the hood. If you play cookie clicker, you'll notice those number-go-up mechanics everywhere and that really gives you another perspective on some modern grindfests. It also is a really good game
https://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/
My duolingo streak addiction made me fucking miserable, but I just couldn't stop. I knew that breaking it would plunge me into a horrible depressive state. I finally broke free after finishing the diamond league and make peace with "good enough". I haven't been able to use duolingo ever since, because there's apparently no way of just using duolingo normally without gamification.
I’m switching over to Babbel when my duo subscription lapses in the fall, much less gamified, actual human speakers for the language I want to learn, and they aren’t trying to shovel AI into everything like duo is
Check out mango. Its pleasant and has a really nice interface.
You can use your library card for free premium access.
Sucks that you have to create a login to search if your library is included. I don't care enough to create a login for something I might not use
My library district actually just got access to Mango in May, I downloaded it, but I haven’t had a chance to try it
Thanks!