I am David Loti. ETEC 540 is my fifth MET course. Ten years ago I moved to Vancouver, BC from Baton Rouge, Louisiana for graduate school. I completed these studies in 2012.
Now I serve at UBC’s Vancouver campus as a Support Analyst in the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. In this role I set up and support student evaluations of teaching.
Now it’s time for What’s in my bag?
The items here include:
- a personal set list from when I took a stand up comedy course at Langara College in 2016
- a handkerchief from the Wilderness, Technology, and Creation graduate course where I met my wife
- a sticker from a summer camp where I led music in 2017
- Flat Stella from a niece’s school project
- an umbrella
- sunglasses
- a wallet
- a notebook
- chord charts
- pens
- a marker
- a tin containing headphones
- nail clippers
- an elastic band
- chap stick
- an inhaler
- a USB cable
- an audio cable
- a USB audio adapter
- a laptop with a green notmyselftoday.ca sticker
- a laptop case
- a folder containing documents related to a recent job change
The laptop is the only item I use almost every day. Aside from the audio cable and the USB cable and adapter, it is the only digital device in the bag. The headphones are a close second in daily usage to the laptop.
One type of text in these items is branding. I am critical of ubiquitous marketing, as it can feed a narrative of consumption and slavery. I sometimes cover up logos on products and avoid items with logos. There is branding on the:
- sticker
- sunglasses
- wallet
- notebook
- pens
- marker
- tin
- headphones
- chap stick
- audio cable
- USB audio adapter
- laptop
- sticker on the laptop to cover the logo on the laptop
- laptop case
- folder
In terms of the autobiographical text of these items, they speak to my interests in music, humour, family, preparedness, the colour green, and learning. They allude to my digital literacy and my struggle with vocational ambivalence.
Regarding the changing spaces of reading and writing, the notebook, which has traveled with me during my five years of employment at UBC, has more blank pages than pages with writing. The majority of my writing is digital; I hypothesize I write more than a thousand words on a digital device to every non-digital word I pen. Again, the laptop is the only item in my bag, which I use almost daily. More than half of my laptop use is reading and writing.
While most of my reading is also digital, there is a much larger daily share of non-digital reading than non-digital writing. Rather than 1000:1 in the case of writing, I predict at least 10% of my daily reading is non-digital. To be fair though, I suspect more than 75% of this 10% non-digital reading originates from a digital source. The chord charts and set list are examples of non-digital writing with a digital origin.
In terms of juxtaposing private and outward projections, there is also an artifact of faith in my bag excluded from the image above. In Vancouver and at UBC I have experienced and witnessed antagonism towards my beliefs. So, whereas I am cautious to broach a non-neutral position on the topic, faith is foundational in my anthropological worldview and existential orientation.
15 years ago this bag would have contained more books, papers and binders, and no digital devices. It would not have contained my wallet; then the wallet would have been in my pocket. However, today I keep IDs and credit cards in my pocket, and the wallet houses cash, earplugs, and spare bandages and guitar picks. Since most of my financial transitions are through credit card now, my wallet often stays in my bag for days. 15 years ago this bag would have also contained more pens. I probably have more pens than necessary considering I use a pen about once a week currently. 15 years ago a pen would have been a daily-use item.
I suspect archeologists will refer to this temporal period as a proto-digital period. I predict our future will see increased dependence on digital devices.
I feel like the neo-archaeologist by examining your contents. Here are some questions that come to mind.
What is the size and shape of your bag?
What could be said about your personality to keep items with a significant background history (the sticker, set list and handkerchief) in your day-to-day bag? The fact they appear at the top of your list emphasizes their personal value.
Given the guitar picks and other accessories for guitar, would we find a link between the music you play and the music you have in a playlist?
Do the notes in your notebook reflect your habits? As in are they grocery lists or ideas for further meditation? Would you have set reminders instead of written a grocery list?
-The MEC logo brands you as a practical personality, and the pens and other recording materials brands you a student or a literary sort. How close this this perception to reality?
The sticker and Flat Stella make a reference to your connection with children. Would we find photos of your extended family as the laptop background, or a photo of your camp?
Just from a glance at the colour scheme, could your colour preference be green?
This has been an interesting exercise. I hope it was not too invasive.
Congratulations on your recent job change and nice to meet you!
It is nice to meet you as well!
In the archeological spirit, I will leave your specific questions unanswered. However, your observations and deductions impress me!
I find this exercise very interesting also, and I look forward to reading our classmates’ posts.
It’s good to meet you through this exercise, David. Apparently we share some things in common (an interest in music and connections with young people, to name two).
I find your assessment of your reading habits very interesting. I suspect the figure may be similar for me in terms of the reading I engage in purposely or consciously. But then, I don’t know that I can account for all the text I encounter as I negotiate the everyday spaces of work and home: writing on items in my fridge, on signs I encounter on my cycle or driving route to work, signs and posters at UBC, coffee shops, ephemeral texts like receipts, etc. The technology of writing is so prevalent in my life.
45 years ago Sharon (1973) conducted a study about reading practices that pointed to the importance of everyday reading. The full text is in the UBC databases. Take a look at the table on page 159 if you have the time or inclination. It would be interesting to see Sharon’s study replicated in the present moment. But then, as I intimate above, I also wonder how reliable people could possibly be in reporting their reading. We take for granted so much of the text that surrounds us.
I’ve certainly enjoyed your contributions to the course thus far and look forward to the next weeks!
Sharon, A. T. (1973). What do adults read?. Reading Research Quarterly, 148-169.
Thank you for your response, Teresa. Ah, you are a musician as well, then? I’ve talked some with Ernesto about his music. After a long break in playing out I am trying to get a band together again. Hopefully we’ll be gigging in 2020.
Thank you for sharing Sharon’s study. I agree it would be fascinating to see it conducted almost 50 years later. While it would be no surprise to see a significant decline in physical newspaper reading, I suspect there could be a comparable amount of online reading of the news. But in light of ubiquitous environmental reading such as packaging and advertisements I concur with your skepticism about how reliable people are in self-reporting their daily reading…or anything actually.