Her coffee sat untouched. Her email inbox already had fourteen new messages. And her cursor was a spinning beach ball of doom.

She had downloaded Spotify to discover new music. Now it discovered new ways to launch itself. She installed Slack to talk to her team. Now it talked to her before she’d even had toast. The printer utility? She didn’t even own a printer anymore.

The answer was almost insultingly simple.

She took a sip of her coffee. It was still hot.

It was 7:14 AM, and Sarah’s laptop screamed to life before her eyes even focused.

That’s when she snapped.

The silence was so loud she laughed.

The screen came up clean. Desktop wallpaper. A clock in the corner. No music. No pings. No pop‑ups. No spinning beach ball.