Tabs left open don't feed internet addiction/ADHD. The act of opening a new tab does. ("Ooh I wonder if there's anything new on FB/HN/etc.?")

I leave about a dozen or so tabs open; they track projects I'm in the middle of but can't complete right now for whatever reason. Leaving them put is organizationally helpful to my brain. (I do the same with physical items as well.)

But the few sites I'm addicted to… those stay closed until I need a fix.

They certainly feed my ADHD. If I have an HN tab open between the the AWS console I have up currently, and that API documentation I need, HN may get some attention before I hit CMD+[ again.

Yeah "the act of opening a new tab does" I agree with. My original statement is based from my own behavior which I was projecting on to others (which I suspect others who are judging people in this thread may be doing), I don't leave my machine on overnight so the over 100 tab numbers being talked about freak me out.

Anecdotally, both my parents (almost 70) have an insane amount of tabs open because they simply don't understand how tabs work. Every time they want to go somewhere else they open a new tab instead of using the current one, and they almost never close em. So this could be great for the less tech-savvy.

Ok, let's think about it in the other direction for a second, and trying on purpose apply just as much meanness so as to appreciate the duality: personally, attempts to limit the number of open tabs reeks of stemming from undiagnosed OCD and/or a lack of important tasks.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't internet addicted, am diagnosed with ADD, and open a lot of tabs. Original statement came from my personal experience, did not mean to offend anyone.

> attempts to limit the number of open tabs reeks of stemming from undiagnosed OCD and/or a lack of important tasks.

Or, alternatively, from keeping an eye on your memory usage. If memory is an issue, not opening too many tabs sure helps.

On my 2GB-of-RAM netbook, I hardly open Firefox at all, on my 8 GB laptop, I just don't care. On my 12 GB work laptop, where I have stuff like mmc, multiple RDP sessions, Internet Explorer with multiple tabs (thank you, SharePoint!) and lots of other stuff opened, I still keep an eye on the number of tabs. Well, sometimes, at least. At 16 GB or above, I just don't give a flying ____.

appreciate the honest response.

i disagree of course, because that's a pretty judgemental slippery slope argument (i.e., that a single behavior implies a whole host of other negative behaviors & attributes).

As an admitted internet addict with an ADD diagnoses I am fairly annoyed that my comment was considered so rude. It didn't seem like something out of bounds to call someone out on to me. Sorry for any offense.

no worries, i personally didn't take any offense (for what it's worth, i upvoted you because your response seemed genuine and without ill will, even if i disagreed with you. but it's internet points, so worth about as much as the paper it's printed on =)