Does 'Browsing Clutter' Increase Your Online Stress?
Keeping too many tabs and windows open in your browser while you use the internet can cause stress and information overload, computer scientists say.
The best way to reduce this stress is to clean up the "browsing clutter" on your computer, say researchers from Aalto University in Finland.
People get browser clutter when they try to handle too many tasks or just leave tabs open without thinking about them. Browser clutter is a "serious" problem for about 25% of computer users, the researchers said.
They said browser clutter also grows when people are distracted by online advertisements or pop-ups, or get lost in navigation and search tasks.
The researchers questioned 400 people in an online survey, and interviewed 16 more in a second study.
More than half of the survey participants left five to 10 tabs open, and 80% left one to three browser windows open on their computers.
Some people tried to reduce clutter by organizing tasks — for example, by using a new window for each task. But this often makes things worse, said researcher Rongjun Ma.
"In the end, the clutter is still there, and it is still tough to find the right window," Ma said.
Others tried a tab management tool, but often found using the tool took too much time, she said.
Keeping too many tabs open is like using a kitchen table "as a dining table, a desk for older children's homework, and a play table for the youngest — all at the same time and without any tidying," said co-researcher Janne Lindqvist.
Apart from closing tabs and windows, Lindqvist has another idea to reduce the stress of online browsing: "Many things would actually be much better handled only on paper," he said.
