For quite a few years I was a paralegal. Before computers were the norm in most offices, information was kept in folders in file cabinets. When we needed to find something, you had to be able to go to it and retrieve it immediately. Not finding it was NOT an option!
After computers came along, all the information was stored at your fingertips. Not finding what you needed STILL was not an option. You had to be able to find what was needed and retrieve it immediately.
I love surfing the web and trying to learn new things. Often, while I am looking for something, something else will catch my attention and I will end up reading something that had nothing to do with my initial search. Bumbling along and not looking for anything specific is OK in the world I am in now. It is not usually critical that I find a specific item.
It does irritate me a little when I click on something and it says “Page Not Found”. I realize there are trillions of billions of pieces of information on the web and not being able to instantly find something should not be uncommon. It is amazing that it finds as much as it does!
My biggest problem is “Page Not Found” in my brain. Many times I am trying to tell someone something, and the words will not form in my brain. Scientist say that the average person usually uses only around 3% of their brain capacity. My 3% sometimes gets lost in the shuffle!
Cognition is a major problem that those of us with MS face. By definition, cognition is the mental process by which we remember, produce and understand language, solve problems and make decisions. When cognition is short-circuited, as it is with MS, these tasks that most people do every day without thinking about are lost to us.
When I am having trouble remembering things or getting the right words out, I try to think of things as being in a filing cabinet. I look through each one and try to find what I need to form my thoughts. Many times, that file seems to be lost. I need to look for a file I’ve been searching for a long time. I think it is in the back corner of my storage area in a cabinet I haven’t looked in lately. Who knows what I might find there………I hope it’s something good! J
1 comment:
I've been blessed in that MS has not robbed me of my cognitive abilities. I can still retrieve information quite easily. However, when I was working I did go through a phase of not finding the right word. Fortunately, that period was short lived, and I got back my ability to communicate clearly.
Peace,
Muff
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