Can't put down your device? [telecom]

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by Natasha Singer

Some people in the technology field are rethinking techniques that encourage users of an app or a service to stay with it or return to it habitually.

Greg Hochmuth was one of the first software engineers hired at Instagram. He worked on a team in 2012 that developed the first Android app for the slick photo-sharing service. In its first 24 hours, the app was downloaded more than one million times.

But Mr. Hochmuth eventually came to realize that the platform's pleasing features - the interface that made it easy for people to upload and share beautiful images, the personalized suggestions of accounts to follow - also had potential downsides.