‘It’s highly manipulative’: The dark side of app streak culture

In 2015, Snapchat wasn’t just a social media app, it was a challenge.

Every day was a chance to extend my streaks, an emoji-based reward system that tracked how many consecutive days I sent photos to friends. During school lunches, my friends and I would send Snaps instead of speaking face-to-face, simply to boost our daily tally. We’d then compare our streaks, which inevitably resulted in bruised egos and petty squabbles. Missing one day meant losing weeks, sometimes months, of progress, and also threw into question the strength of my friendships.

I largely escaped this cycle when I left school, convinced social media streaks – an app’s reward system for using certain functions every day without stopping – would simply become an artefact of the 2010s. That is until I discovered TikTok is bringing it back.

Maintaining a streak can sometimes feel like a full-time job. Is there any point keeping them up?Credit: Marija Ercegovac

In June, TikTok began testing its own streaks feature, which counts how many consecutive days users have sent direct messages to friends on the platform. Other apps before it have also adopted Snapchat’s streak tradition, including language learning app Duolingo, exercise tracking app Strava and online learning platform Quizlet.

So, what’s behind this ongoing obsession with streaks, and are they any good for us?

Why are streaks so sacred?

Clinical psychologist Dr Anastasia Hronis says building a streak triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, motivation and reinforcement.

“These types of apps can help people set goals and stick to them,” says Hronis, author of The Dopamine Brain. “They also break down tasks to be achievable. For example, it only takes a few moments of low-effort activity to maintain a Snapchat streak.”

Whether they’re on a social or wellness app, streaks tend to offer positive reinforcement, she says, particularly around self-identity and self-improvement.

Fun habit or toxic obsession?

As rewarding as streaks can feel, they’re ultimately a marketing tactic used to keep us continuously plugged into apps, Hronis says.

Piers Howe, associate professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne, says many people maintain streaks to avoid the “sunk cost fallacy”, a term popularised by Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler.

“Instead of evaluating what the best course of action is at a particular time, you become biased by the effort you’ve put into it until now,” Howe explains. “It’s like with gamblers: they’ve lost some money, so they’re going to keep chasing that money. But, of course, what they should do is stop.”

This is why so many people become addicted to building streaks, over-relying on them to feel a sense of accomplishment.

“Keeping people, especially young people, engaged in conversations that they may not be enjoying simply because they don’t want to lose a streak – it’s not just bad, it’s highly manipulative,” Howe says.

Streaks gamify day-to-day social interactions and wellbeing activities. As a result, it becomes more about “winning” or “keeping up” than the actual value of the activities involved. In fact, some people don’t even do the tasks required. For example, someone I know uses a meditation app, but doesn’t always have time to complete the daily tasks. On these days, determined to maintain their streak, they open the app and let the meditation play out without them tuning in.

“Streaks have become a compulsive means for social comparison,” says Dr Kiki van Essen, a US-based digital culture expert. “If streaks are shared with others, we can use it as a tool to ‘keep up with the Joneses’.”

Anxiety around maintaining streaks is intensified by “guilt marketing”, van Essen adds. Duolingo changes its app icon depending on your current streak. If you’ve missed a few days, the Duolingo owl looks like it’s dying.

“This can be an effective measure to get people back on the app, but when Duolingo makes you feel like you let them down, it can make you feel sad too,” van Essen says.

Streaks can also trigger people who are already at risk of overdoing healthy behaviours, she adds. “For example, getting daily exercise is important, but someone who struggles with anorexia might revert to unhealthy behaviours if they receive daily reminders to maintain an exercise streak.”

Forming healthy streak habits

Streaks have the capacity to reinforce healthy behaviours, such as fitness, education and socialisation. However, Andrew Campbell, associate professor of cyberpsychology at the University of Sydney, says it is a balancing act.

“It’s important to set a realistic and personal goal, but also recall why you set the original goal,” he says. “By remaining grounded in our original goal, and not comparing ourselves to others, we’re likely to greatly benefit from data that plots our small wins on some apps.”

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