They may not need our attention right now, but we don't want to lose our place or forget what we were doing. This also explains why we're more likely to keep tabs open that represent ongoing projects or tasks. "Fear of this blackhole effect was so strong that it compelled people to keep tabs open even as the number became unmanageable." "People feared that as soon as something went out of sight, it was gone," said professor Aniket "Niki" Kittur, head of research for the Carnegie Mellon study. Even if we don't need a tab open, we might be afraid to close it just in case we need it later. This is the idea that a fear of losing something is more motivating than a desire to gain something. Loss aversion is another cognitive bias that can fuel our tab-collecting habits. Carnegie Mellon’s study participants felt "an attachment to the information saved in tabs and an investment in the organization they built up." Loss aversion It can also mean that even once we realize we have too many tabs open, we're reluctant to close them because we don't want to "waste" the time we've already spent. If we're working or learning online, this may mean that we finish an article despite not enjoying it or keep a tab open for research because we've already spent hours on it. The sunk cost fallacy is the idea that we're more likely to continue investing in something if we've invested a lot in the past - even if it's not worth our time or energy. Let’s take a closer look at what’s happening with each one. Our tab collections can grow for a variety of reasons, but three cognitive biases are usually at play: This is why it's crucial to find ways to manage our tabs and reduce tab clutter.īefore we can get our tab addiction under control, we need to understand why it's happening in the first place. Carnegie Mellon University's recent in-depth browser tab research discovered that when participants had too many tabs open, they felt "negative emotions and pressure."Īll of these costs associated with tab overload can have a significant impact on our work, our learning, and our lives. The constant task switching that occurs when shifting between tabs can lead to mental fatigue and higher stress levels. Further study found that it takes 23 minutes to get back on track after being interrupted, which means all that tab switching can add up. Researchers found that task switching - or jumping between multiple tabs - can lead to a 40% drop in productivity. This can lead to slower performance and decreased battery life. Having too many tabs open takes up valuable system resources, which means your computer has to work harder. As you open multiple tabs, switching costs increase and it becomes harder to focus on any one task. This results in the switch cost effect, which occurs when we change our focus from one task to another. The Microsoft study found that we switch tabs online at least 57.4% of the time. It turns out there are many costs associated with tab overload, including: Users with lots of tabs open still viewed the same number of pages per session, they just used parallel browsing and spread their activities among multiple tabs. The problem with tab clutterĭespite having a bunch of tabs open, you may not be as productive as you think, according to research.Ī study conducted by Microsoft found that opening multiple tabs doesn't enhance our productivity - it just leads to multitasking. This article will explore why we keep too many tabs open, the risks involved, and how a simple five-step solution can help you tame the number of tabs you keep open. There's hope for people who struggle with tab overload. Having too many browser tabs open can make you less productive, slow down your computer, and make it harder to concentrate. While opening a few (or a few dozen) tabs may not seem like a big deal, too much digital clutter can be troublesome. That's a lot of tabs and a lot of clutter. (Guilty! This is being written among 17 open tabs - yikes!) You also aren't alone - in an Open Source survey, 64% of poll respondents have more than 11 open tabs, and 45% have more than 20. No, this isn't a magic trick, and you haven't been hacked. There’s a good chance that you have more than 10 open right now. Are you reading this on a browser? If so, take a quick peek at your tabs.
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