Why Do I Have More Than 40 Tabs Open on My Browser All the Time?
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the fact that there are so many tabs open on your browser?
It doesn’t keep you away from doing what you are doing or anything. But it is just… It is just uncomfortable.
It does not feel right.
Yesterday, I was watching a movie on Netflix. The guy was using a laptop to do some research. He had only one tab open.
I paused the movie and looked closely. I could not believe it.
How come someone can be so disciplined and so organized?
And no bookmarks.
Wow! You’ve got to be kidding me.
I said to myself “This cannot be based on a true story. Must be fiction”. I was so envious of such a simple thing.
After watching the movie, I turned my laptop on. 42 tabs open from the last session. And I have more than 100 bookmarks.
Here is that overwhelming feeling again.
Why this sh*t happens all the time?
To find the reason for this situation, we need to go deeper.
Have you ever watched a video on YouTube and found yourself in a loop because you opened all the videos on the recommendation section on a new tab.
You were just there to watch one video, but the data on you was processed so well, they got you on the hook. Now you cannot leave YouTube.
Most of my 42 tabs on my browser were YouTube videos.
I said to myself, “What’s going on here. Why am I not watching these videos?”
I set closing those tabs and having only one tab open on my browser as a goal for the day. And started to watch the videos one by one.
“I’m going to do it. I’m going to close all the tabs. And then I’m going to get rid of all the bookmarks.”
One hour later, I had 3 more tabs open in addition to the initial 42 tabs.
F*ck.
The recommendation system works so well on YouTube; even though I was able to watch 10 of those initial 42 videos, I had to click that recommended video again.
Even though at the back of my mind, I knew I’m watching those videos to get rid of them, I just had to open those recommended videos on a new tab.
I could not resist.
When I was dealing with the world’s biggest problem, my girlfriend walked in.
“Oh my God! I saw a pasta sauce commercial today just after we talked about eating pasta tonight. Can you believe that?” she asked me.
Well, yes I can believe that.
When we talk about Google and how much they know about people, we subconsciously think that they are a bunch of people sitting in their office and collecting data. Just like the people on the street who would like to survey you.
The way A.I. handles the data is entirely different. They are using Deep Neural Networks to analyze us.
Let me ask you a question.
Look at the cubicle shape in the picture above. And think about an ant walking on it. The ant does not know that the cube is a three-dimensional shape. He does not think about it. It is difficult to perceive that reality from the position it is in.
Just like people. We are living on earth which has an oblate spheroid shape, but it feels like the earth is flat.
That is why it is difficult for us to visualize how A.I. handles the data. It is above our perception.
The reason I see the pasta sauce commercial on Thursdays at 5 pm might be the fact that Thursdays are pasta days usually. They have this data on me.
But when should they show this ad to me? Should they do it on Thursday at 5 pm? Well, I don’t have time to buy the pasta sauce then. I’m already home.
Should they show it in the morning? I don’t think that would make me buy it.
So maybe the best time is one day before around night time. So I can crave it for the next day and have time to buy it.
A.I. does not guess. It already has a database and proven success methods from all the trial and error it ran on people. However, everybody is different so it will run tests on you too. And it will find the perfect timing.
There are two ways to interpret this A.I. thing.
- We can dwell on the fact that A.I. knows us so well and it is unfair that we don’t have any privacy.
- We can appreciate the convenience of it.
At this point, I’m grateful for the convenience because I have nothing to hide.
But d*mn it. I’m pissed off about those open tabs.
Am I going to be able to use my browser with one tab open one day like that guy in the movie?
How many tabs do you have open right now?
Let me know in the comments.
Be honest.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +430,678 people.
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