One of the studies mentioned in that article argues that in an open office, individuals use more electronic communications, fewer face to face communication. Arguably that's fewer distractions, not more.
Admittedly, it depends on your configurations (edit: and social norms where you work). But email and Slack are both potentially asynchronous. A coworker talking is not.
I said "depending on your configurations". I have email set to pop up on my phone every 30 minutes. I have slack set to never send me a notification except for an @here or direct reply to me. These settings work decently for my current role.
The one major hole is that the slack icon shows a red dot whenever I use ⌘-tab to switch apps, and the red dot appears on non-essential slacks that I'd rather not read so frequently.
I'm aware that some people have unreasonable bosses who freak out when emails aren't answered faster. But clueless bosses will be clueless in any medium.
