I read a really interesting article in a magazine a while ago, I can’t recall what magazine it was but it dealt with how the internet might, and very well most likely is, changing how we consume information, as in how we sort through and store information. It said that it’s quite common for us to now quickly scan articles, read by-lines, or summaries rather than actually sit and read through an entire essay, while some people will save long articles intending to read them later while never actually getting around to it.
The point being is that you’re going to close the tabs anyway, so if you’ve watched a video, read through a website and gleaned whatever value you were digging for, why not just close the tab after you’ve moved on?
Usually if I find I have a bunch of tabs open, by the time I decide to quit browsing the early tabs have lost a lot of relevance to what I’m thinking about by then.