If you’re a typical user of digital technology, that takes a heavy toll on concentration. You get used to having your attention divided between the world right in front of you and the world that you access through your devices. Even as you’re engaged in some activity in the “here and now”, you’re wondering what’s going on your digitally extended world.
And if you’re a typical user of digital technology, you’ll be in denial of how much your attention is divided. It’s when you’re called on to hold your attention still for prolonged periods—like in chess—that you notice the problem.
This appears to be the new normal. Culturally, I see no hope of reversing that trend. Individually, it’s a matter both of exercising purposeful executive control over what your attention is doing (as in meditation), and keeping your digital life retrained.