automaticable

Jokingly, I told my girlfriend Stacy to write an article for the blog instead of study for her big test on Wednesday. She’s been really stressing out about it lately, and I knew she wouldn’t have time to take a break. However,  she did have time to write this short article…

So my boyfriend asked me to write a little something to post on his new blog. After reading all of the computer science/tech savvy articles by him and his brothers, I felt a like anything I would write would be out of place. Instead, I decided to do the opposite of their trends and move a little closer to the stone age, away from computers - where I technologically fit.

I guess I should add a bit of history about me first. I am a junior in college at UIUC. I am studying psychology, but pursuing a career as a physician’s assistant. I hardly have a background in computers, although I’ve always been considered good at fixing electronics since I was young. Currently, my boyfriend is helping me fix up a web page for a club I am in. Other than that, when it comes to computers I know how to write a paper and play freecell and I wouldn’t give myself much credit for anything else. Back to the point I started making, moving back to the stone age makes me feel more comfortable that I don’t rely on technology everyday. Even though the medical field is increasing their reliance on technology, I’d rather rely on what has been around for a long time and what I know works.
For example, I volunteer at the local hospital in the ER. Just the other day I got to watch a guy’s head be sutured. This is a pretty good experience for a volunteer because most of our experience is restocking shelves or changing linens. When the nurse began to suture his head, the patient’s hair kept getting in the way of the knot. If she continued, this would have led to a very irritating healing process with hair stuck under the knot in the scab. So how did she solve this problem? A paper clip. When she first asked me to fetch a paper clip, I was surprised that the suture kit didn’t come with some kind of sterile clip that can hold back anything that will get in the way. But I guess you can always rely on paper clips.

Maybe it’s just the psych major in me, but this reminds me of a term — functional fixedness. It means that if you ’suffer’ from functional fixedness, you can only see an object for its intended use. So for people like this, a paper clip is only an object to hold papers together. When I say ’suffer’, maybe it’s a stretch, but I mean that these people lack the creativity and find a hard time deviating from norms, making their life less efficient. I learned this term in my first psychology class about four years ago. This was around the time that I also found another use for a paper clip. As much as I hate to reflect upon it, I worked at Subway for what seems like a lifetime. But I actually learned a lot from that place. Anyway, in our less than classy store, the toilet in the men’s room broke very often. However, a coworker of mine replaced the rusty/corroded part with a paper clip. I probably wouldn’t have thought of this idea myself, but needless to say, for the following four years that I worked there, we never had a problem with the toilet again.

Maybe these are just two examples of other uses of paper clips, but my point is that if you look around, there are a lot of things that have multiple purposes. And not all of these things are new. They are reliable tools that have been around for a long time. As I slowly pull myself out of the stone age and transition to a new era, I want to not only learn about computers and new electronics, but also how to use our past tools more efficiently. As a last thought, I leave you with the famous problem of fixing a candle to the wall and lighting it given only matches, a candle, and a matchbox filled with thumbtacks. Solve that and maybe you’ll see things a bit more in my light.

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