
A baffled husband has revealed that his wife opens over 500 tabs on her phone and even has a workaround for the limit, leaving social media users perplexed over the 'digital version of hoarding'. Ryan Briggs, a social scientist and associate professor at the University of Guelph in Canada, shared the surprising discovery on X (formerly Twitter) when he found his wife private browsing not for secrecy, but to bypass Safari's 500-tab limit.
"I asked my wife why she was in private browsing mode on her phone and she explained that Safari only allows 500 tabs in regular mode so she had to switch. You think you know a person," Mr Briggs wrote.
I asked my wife why she was in private browsing mode on her phone and she explained that Safari only allows 500 tabs in regular mode so she had to switch. You think you know a person
— Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs) July 12, 2025
The post quickly went viral, garnering over 5.6 million views as of the last update -- sparking a wave of relatable confessions and humorous reactions.
"I purge my tabs when it's >5. How do people live like that?" said one user while another added: "500 open tabs and a backup plan just to keep surfing. You spend years thinking you know someone's quirks, and then you find out they're a digital hoarder with a workaround for everything."
A third commented: "Show her how to move it to a new tab group. you can have infinite 500 tab groups."
A fourth said: "The replies and confessions under this…is anyone studying what the digital version of hoarding is? that can be the only explanation to this."
the replies and confessions under this… is anyone studying what the digital version of hoarding is? that can be the only explanation to this 😭 https://t.co/WX7VU9FQFC
— kate 🪐 (@cosmicraays) July 12, 2025
Though Safari is optimised for Apple devices and can efficiently handle tabs by suspending inactive ones, opening too many can still impact performance. The device may slow down, and your battery life could take a hit, especially on older Macs.
Too many tabs
The point of tabs is to compartmentalise a portion of the internet that a user is surfing so that they can return to it whenever they feel like. However, opening too many tabs can make it harder to locate the information you are looking for quickly.
The time wasted in switching tabs could slow down your output, resulting in a loss of productivity. While not the biggest issue, too many tabs take up memory, slowing down your computer and making the whole experience even more frustrating.
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