To get to the bottom of this, I reached out to Rosanny Genao, who was my Spanish teacher for two years of high school, to figure out why an anthropomorphic green owl scares me more than she ever did. We'll stop sending them for now.' But allowing that to happen is even worse - you're just admitting defeat and accepting your failure to progress. Granted, Duolingo users can turn these notifications off, and if you ignore them for long enough, the app will send you the ultimate passive aggressive alert: 'These reminders don't seem to be working.

It's an internet-wide experience: Duolingo's passive-aggressive notifications became a meme, and the company even leaned into it by bringing the threatening owl to life in this year's April Fools' Day prank. Whether I'm navigating rush hour traffic or sitting through an excruciating first date, Duolingo's push notifications remind me to spend five minutes on my daily lesson precisely when I don't have five minutes.

It lurks in the shadows of my phone, waiting for me to practice, and striking when it's most personally inconvenient. Unlike my high school Spanish teacher, whose reach only extended to 50 minutes of class time a day, Duolingo is always with me. SEE ALSO: The Duolingo owl is out for vengeance in these threatening memes

Duo owl