Addicted to the Owl: Habitual Media Use and Gamification in Duolingo User Communities on Reddit

Abstract

This thesis explores user engagement with Duolingo’s gamification features on Reddit. Through a mixed-methods analysis combining walkthrough study and computational text analysis, it examines how design elements like streaks, leaderboards, quests, and rewards influence motivation, habits, and community practices. Drawing on Chun’s (2016) theory of habitual media and Nagy and Neff’s (2015) concept of imagined affordances, the analysis of 23,000 Reddit comments reveals that while gamification fosters engagement, it also generates pressures that can harm intrinsic motivation. Reddit emerges as a space where users collectively negotiate these tensions, offering insights into the intersection of digital learning, community formation, and platform governance.