Apps play tricks on you to turn an activity into a habit. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to encourage healthy behaviors such as exercising or playing word games.【小题1】. Here’s how to recognize when your tech habit might be an unwelcome obsession (着迷), and practical steps for you to take back control.

Do a cost-benefit analysis.【小题2】That’s why we need to try doubly hard to do self-assessments of how features such as streaks (打卡时间) or leaderboards are helping and hurting us. Think over whether the behavior they inspire in you contributes to or detracts from your welfare.

Build in “cheat days”. They are like days off from a strict diet.【小题3】It can also help to schedule days off from our habits—whether it’s running, reading the news or scrolling Instagram.

【小题4】Especially for young people, it can be helpful to plan in advance activities that might be a distraction. If your teen knows he’s allowed one hour on YouTube at 7 p.m., then he can relax without thinking about when he’ll be able to hop on his favorite app.

【小题5】Tech companies, schools, social institutions and governments all have a responsibility to help reset standards of technology use. For example, schools have experimented with locking up students’ phones so they can’t use them during the school day. And the government in some countries have restricted the time young people are allowed to spend playing video games or using social media apps.