>I don't think this technology introduces anything new to this issue.

This belief shows up time and time and again and is nearly always false. We had the written word before the internet, and before the printing press, so blogs are just like a hand-written letter. Gossip has always existed, so twitter does nothing new. There have always been things which eat at our impulse control, such as sports gambling and casinos, so smart phones are nothing new. etc.

What this view really fails to understand is that the constant here is human nature. Human nature is built more or less the same way as it has been for thousands of years. What changes is how technology allows human nature to play out, whether or not any given technology interacts poorly with human nature. New problems can exist purely based on scope, scale, reach, ease-of-use, lack of friction, etc.

Very fair point, thank you! I'm not sure I entirely agree with everything, but I was definitely missing the change in the accessibility of the disruptions. You're probably right that the more immediate the notification is, the higher are the chances that it'll interfere with our attention in a way that's could introduce some undesirable effects. Definitely there's a difference between a mail arriving, phone or watch buzzing, and something instantly appearing in the visual field.