Technology as a distraction to important tasks

       What have been some of the negative connotations of the social media bombardment / smart phone debate? The delivery mechanism seems to have developed very strong technology driven issues. I will highlight situations technology is used as a distraction. My chief complaint is that people have a difficult time keeping their attention on important tasks. Receiving notifications from so many different service or content providers. Consider all the constant tweets, burps, jiggles or bells. I value being up to date but this is another dimension. When I recently went on holidays I set my email to manual fetch. Ya, that’s right, the other choice. Rather than having it automatically check every 15 minutes. An absolutely dinosaureous setting. You have to pull down on the app, then wait for new messages to load. My reasoning for doing it was to do with data rooming in the US but it enlightened me.  Apple headquarters could tells us all how many users have each setting, but push must be heavily favored.
I clearly remember modems that connected while bleeping in that special annoying way. Why are we so distracted by technology that by its very nature can be done at any time, anywhere? 100% portable and not easy to turn off. Why when focus is demanded by operating machinery or during work do people use technology that's well known to be inappropriate to interact with?

     People who drive still taking on cell phones. No Bluetooth. No hands free even. This one is so bad. It is criminal behavior and yet the crotch watching is everywhere. Texting at lights to pass the time unaware of surroundings. I put my phone under the arm rest face down while driving. I don't want to miss anything the web will be there when I arrive at my destination. Lack of focus from the task at hand can have serious consequences. Car signal jammer interlocks installed in repeat offenders vehicles are next.

     

     Lastly, please use the example of a repair person hired by you to fix your broken appliance but uses a smart phone inappropriately while in your home. Is it correct to charge you for effort spent doing other things not work the technician is supposed to be doing for you? The worker may call other workers to discuss other work while on the job for you. Family calls are hard not to receive but what would you consider yakking while on the job? I am concerned most about the attention span of the tradesperson doing detail orientated work. If workers are on my property distracted from the task at hand they could be injured. Now that they have lost focus, will they cause damage to my equipment or property through carelessness? All the while they expect to be paid for all the time spent at your home. Trouble with worker productivity is trouble for customers making trouble for employers.

Q