It is real and it affects those who lack self control the most including me. I can spend endless hours researching the topics of my interest and listen to the music at the same time.
It seems like technology is just exploiting instinctive ways we interact with the world and learn.
This matters because it is not an individual problem of low will power etc. We will understand that the way the internet and social media interact with people just fundamentally creates false connections and impressions and generally confuses our unconscious mind.
I’d rather be an internet addict than go back to those days.