Browser extensions start as helpful sidekicks, promising to block ads, save passwords, or customize your browsing. Yet most of them quietly retire to the background, forgotten by their owners but still running.

These digital relics consume memory and processing power without fanfare, like ghosts of good intentions past. Yet users rarely prune or audit them, letting outdated extensions linger for months or years.

Sometimes they conflict, causing glitches or slowing down browsing, but the human patience threshold for this kind of digital clutter seems incredibly high. It’s as if the browser has become a dusty attic, filled with tools bought on impulse and then left to molder.

I wonder if someday browsers will come with a digital Marie Kondo, sweeping through extensions and asking, “Does this still spark joy or just drag you down?” Until then, the forgotten extensions keep their quiet vigil, unnoticed but not harmless.