Everyone has that one app. The one that mocks you from your home screen. The app that lures you to the folder where you’ve tried to hide it. The app you’ve signed out of and deleted — only to download again the next morning. The app you can’t quite quit.

For Corey Lewis, it was Instagram. “I found myself constantly scrolling through it for no reason, all the time,” the 43-year-old Seattle-based tech marketing consultant said. “Every slight pause in my brain had resulted in a pretty much subconscious reaction to open the app and start thumbing through my feed.”

Making things worse were some new and unwelcome feelings. “I actually found myself getting angry and just having weird, not-very-me emotions about posts that had zero bearing on my life,” he said. Lately, even as his toddler explored the world around him, Mr. Lewis found himself exploring feeds on his phone.

“I found myself jamming Instagram into every single one of those times, no matter how small, which is totally selfish and the opposite of being an involved, open and present parent which I very much hope to be,” he said. It was time to do something.