Dear Smartphone: Tab Browsing

DEAR SMARTPHONE: I LIKED YOUR RESPONSE ABOUT WHY OLDER PEOPLE BLAME KIDS WHEN THEY FORGET TO TURN ON THE RINGER. I HAVE A SIMILAR QUESTION. WHY DO OLDER PEOPLE RESIST USING TABS WHEN THEY DO A SEARCH? WHY DO THEY INSIST ON CLOSING ONE TAB AND THEN OPENING ANOTHER?  Wilco, Mill Valley

Dear Wilco: Perhaps there is a digital divide on this issue. An earlier   generation like  Ms. Smartphone once believed that  keeping tabs open drains the battery or could crash their device, and  compromise privacy. I did some scanning for representative points of view: Back in 2013, a journalist, Angus Kidman suggests that you close tabs because one cannot possibly process that much information simultaneously and it might keep you from focusing on the task at hand. In 2018,  A Slate writer, Rachel Withers, suggests that you let tabs pile up, because they are inspirational and like a stack of books you might get around  to reading! How we use and process information may be at the bottom of this issue. Keep tabs on it (pun intended)!