It’s been getting worse over the past few days - it’s taking a long time to load pages. Doesn’t seem tied to any particular site : SDMB, Wikipedia. Google news - I get blank white pages, or the spinning circle, or no change from the previous page when I click on a link.
I’ve turned the phone off and let it sit for a bit, but it doesn’t make any difference.
Thoughts, O wise Dopers?
Maybe a silly question but when you turned it off did you do a full power down? Not just turn it off but fully power it down such that when you power it back on you’ll get the Apple logo.
Does it matter whether you are on a phone network or wireless?
Tried different wireless networks?
Tried different browsers?
Did you check just how MANY open windows/pages you have in Safari right now? Not to mention other open apps. The ‘inactive’ tabs aren’t the resource hogs that the main one is, but it adds up!
First, I’d do a quick double click on home to pull up all open apps. Swipe up to close any you aren’t using.
Second, open Safari, and click on the overlaping squares in the bottom right. Close any tabs you aren’t needing to reference.
Third, as suggested by @Bullitt - do a full power down (I do advise this at least once a week).
Fourth, is your iOS up to date? iPhones can get squirrely when out of date. An equally huge issue for iPhones (especially older ones) is low storage - anything lower than 5% remaining especially. Check Settings > General > iPhone Storage - you should be shooting for 10% available or more, and if under 5% start deleting stuff.
Fifth (does it show I used to do this for a living?) check your connection - is this wifi or cellular, and are you allowing Safari to use cellular data? [ we’re starting to get into the more unlikely options, but hey, being complete ]
If issues persist after all of this, we can work on other even less likely issues, but I’d bet 90% its in the above.
Any improvement @Northern_Piper?
Yes. I’ve not done anything and it seems to be working fine again. If probs develop I will go through your checklist. Thanks!
Working is what we care about, and glad to hear it!
The pattern seems to repeat, first thing in the morning, and then gets better. Weird.
A possibility if it’s time specific is network congestion - IE if everyone is streaming something in the same local at the same time, it gets slow for you, but also for everyone else. The old saw when I did this for a living was calls that while everyone was stuck in traffic crawl the internet was slow - because an entire 7 lane in each direction freeway was full of people watching cat videos on their phones at the same time. 
The ones that were normally standout was morning commute, lunch break, evening commute, and 9pm kids are in bed streaming because they don’t want to go to sleep.
But that’s an educated guess at most. The ‘good’ news is that if it’s time specific, it’s almost certainly not your phone!
Interesting. Hadn’t thought of that. Thanks!