Task #1 – What’s in Your Bag?

Task #1 – What’s in Your Bag?

The bag I have chosen for this assignment is my purse. The items currently in my purse include:

1. 1. 1. A mask 
      2. Hand sanitizer 
      3. Lip Products 
      4. Nail File 
      5. Gum and Mints
      6. Wet Napkins 
      7. Power Bank Portable Charger 
      8. Highlighters and Pens
      9. Mini Post-it Note Pad 
      10. Pill Container
      11. Hair Ties
      12. Tums 
      13. Receipts – Costco, Save-On, Staples. 
      14. Nutrigrain Bar 
      15. Car Key
      16. IPhone 11 (Missing from picture as I used it to take the picture!)

After emptying my bag and reflecting on the daily need for these items, I realize that most items are not ones I use on a daily basis. In fact the only item that is used on a daily basis is my phone (not pictured). My car key and wallet are always with me, regardless if I am using this bag or not, but they are not always “used.” My car has a push button start and easy door unlock,  so I never actually use the key for anything. The key simply has to be in my bag or with me. My wallet is also always with me because it contains my drivers license, but my wallet isn’t always used on a daily basis. I mean I do often use my wallet to pay for things, but not on a daily basis. The rest of the items in my bag are “just in case” items as I like to be prepared. 

If someone was to read the “texts” in my bag, the “texts” might tell them a few things about me:

• The chapsticks and lip gloss could indicate that I am low-key when it comes to my appearance. The chapsticks are both clear and the lip gloss only has a hint of color. There is no other makeup in the bag. The low-key appearance may also be implied with the plain black purse, wallet and mask.
• The pens, highlighters and Post-it note pad could indicate that I am a teacher or that I work in an office. 
• The hair ties could imply that I have long hair. They may also suggest that I am an active person and have hair ties with me to put my hair up at anytime.
• The wet wipes from the Canadian Brewpub suggest that I go to casual dining establishments and perhaps enjoy finger foods. They could also hint at the fact that I am a mother and wet wipes are always handy to have!
• The mask and sanitizer could indicate that either I live in an area that is mask mandated at this time, or they could indicate that I am extra cautious and/or want to protect myself and those around me by wearing a mask when I am out and about. The items also show that the pandemic is still happening.
• The receipts could show that I go shopping and that there may be more than one person in my household. This could be hinted at with a Costco wholesale receipt and a Save-on Foods receipt from the same weekend, as generally this entails a lot of groceries. The Staples receipt with school supplies  from just before school started may indicate that I am a teacher, that I am a student, or that I have a child (or children) that are school age. 
• A large number of the items could also demonstrate that I like to be prepared. From the portable battery pack, nail file, mints, and tums, to the snack bar, sanitizer, pill container, and chapsticks. So many of the items are ‘just-in-case’ items – in case of a headache, heartburn, bad breath, a broken nail, hunger, germs, chapped lips, a dead phone battery etc.
• The car key suggests that I have a drivers license and car and therefore am of a certain age. With the car key being a keyless fob, it could indicate that I own a car that is 0-7 years old or so.
• The Nutrigrain snack bar could indicate that I am often on the run and have easy to go food with me. It could also imply that I am a mother and have snacks with me for my kid(s). It also suggests that I am not celiac.
• All of the words written on the items in my bag are in English, suggesting I live in a country that is predominantly English speaking. 

There are a couple of text technologies in my bag. The first being the pens, highlighters and post-it notes. These allow me to manually  write or draw a message to communicate with others, or with myself. The different types and colors of pens allow different text or symbols to stand out amongst the other text. The highlighters allow me to pull out specific text in something I read or have written and allow me to interact with the text. My phone is also a text technology as it is a way for digital communication. I use my phone to send text messages, emails, write lists and reminders, create calendars etc. It is also used to read articles, emails, books, weather and look at pictures and posts. These two types of text technologies are very different. One indicates a manual, hands-on type of text interaction, while the other is a digital text interaction, complete with spell check and voice typing, that I can use to create text or interact with text that was created by others. 

My phone (which isn’t pictured) shows that I have digital literacy. I use my phone to create and interact with texts, to communicate with others, and to  find, gather and assess information. My phone could also be linked to aural literacy because I use my phone to listen to audio books. I also often use speech technology to send text messages and to leave voice messages for my niece.

I think the narrative  of the private contents of the bag in comparison to the narrative of my public self are pretty much the same. I have been told that I am easy to read as a person and I think the things that one would assume by seeing me in person would be confirmed by the contents of my bag. I am a fairly reserved person and prefer to be more in the background. I think this is confirmed by clear lip products and the neutral color of my purse, mask and wallet. I am also a very organized and prepared person, which again is demonstrated by my bag. 

Some of the things in my bag would have been very different 15-25 years ago. The biggest difference would have been some of the electronic type items. The cell phone, for example, would have been a flip phone, possibly with an antenna, and it would only be able to make phone calls and send text messages with ‘T9’ typing. The portable battery pack would not be something that the average person could afford, nor would it probably fit in a purse, and the car key would have been a metal key as opposed to have a circuit board inside it. The receipts would also have been different as credit cards were not automatically read and processed by the computers/cash registers and instead you would find carbon copied prints from credit card imprinters in my bag. I would also have never had a mask or sanitizer in my purse. Pre-pandemic, I would have never considered having those items with me everywhere I went and having them become part of the every day norm.

The two items that I think might stand out the most to an archeologist would be the mask and the sanitizer. These items would gives hints about living in a pandemic. The other items that may give a hint into this temporal period are individually wrapped snack bar, and individually wrapped wet napkins. These items may indicate that the people in this period of time weren’t looking after the environment and both created and used a lot of single-use plastic waste.