I think everyone has the cause and effect backwards. I believe that we're not distracted because we have these magical distraction devices. Rather, we invented the distraction devices because modern life is so devoid of meaning and purpose that distraction is a survival adaptation. The higher quality the distractions, the higher quality of the modern life.
> It quiets the squirrel-in-a-wheel spinning of your thoughts and takes the edge off the need to engage with whatever is distracting you.
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but what's wrong with functioning as a squirrel-in-a-wheel with constant distraction? I don't want myself to be calm, and neither do my family, friends, or employers. Everyone wants me to have the appearance of calm, but they actually need the squirrel on the wheel to get the output that everyone expects from me.
Being truly "calm" unleashes a deep existential anxiety about how life is precious and I'm wasting all of it with work and other meaningless obligations. I keep that crisis under control by smothering it with more distractions. I think this is a perfectly valid and sensible response to the modern world.
My plan is to be at peak-distraction until I've made it through the corporate grinder. I hope I'm able to reassemble myself once I can retire.
I'd argue it is the other way around. What we call "distraction" is simply super-salient stimulus that we don't benefit in the long run but can't help being drawn to. It is like addiction. And addiction sells very well. Addictions can be designed to serve the market.
We don't ever get distracted with long pleasant walks, watching the sunset, home-cooked whole-food meals, deep reciprocal conversations, rich thoughtful books, sensual bonding love-making. But all have their marketable, superficial versions we can get addicted to like fast food, porn, hookups, twitter, youtube etc. I think the sense of meaninglessness and purposelessness is created because we get stuck in consuming these surface forms without getting anything that can genuinely nourish and grow us as people.
I find this practice is easier to engage in than meditation, but it brings some of the same benefits. It quiets the squirrel-in-a-wheel spinning of your thoughts and takes the edge off the need to engage with whatever is distracting you. It's important to do this during work hours, especially at first, because taking time out from what you see as your free time is a lot harder.