Eli5 Why do you have to double click on desktop, but single click on the internet

Question

This is very fitting for this as I was probably about 5 when I first asked but never got a good answer “it’s just how it is” or something similar.
But when your on the desktop of your computer you double click to open a file or a program, but on the internet you single click everything.

In: 1

Answer 1

The “desktop metaphor” uses a single click to select an item, and a double click to “activate it” In the case of the “desktop” this represents things on your machine that you own therefore you can manipulate them, so you need a more complex set of controls.

A traditional, old school, webpage is a presentation medium, it presents formatted text and images with relevant hyperlinks. You don’t own this content and therefore cannot manipulate it. The only items that were actionable were hyperlinks, and all you could do is follow them, not manipulate them in any way. All you were allowed to do is to click on them, so you only needed one action, the single click.