I choose the contents of my “computer” bag as it’s the one that is with me the most. Sometimes I add a purse to my shoulder, but six out of seven days, this is the one I leave the house with.
It’s an interesting exercise to analyze the contents and to ponder what I carry with me most often and the reasons for them. I’m sort of always working. I don’t have a job with set hours and to some extent my work is my hobby. Thus, I frequently tote around the tools that allow me to work anywhere, anytime, with a few other essentials (ie. wallet) thrown in.

What initially struck me is that this bag, in many ways, embodies “text and technology”. From the writing utensils and notepaper, to the laptop, to the iPhone, there is a range of methods available to me to string words together into text. I view most of these as tools of my work as an accountant and professor. But if I’m being honest, it is not all work and no play – there is a whole lot of entertainment and distraction in there too!

The items accurately represent how I interact with various “literacies”. I prefer to read books in printed form over digital, hence the paperback book. I often like to write notes and organize my thoughts on paper and like to keep a notebook nearby. I use my phone often to listen to podcasts engaging in more of an oral mode of communication. The laptop gets used most often for writing material ranging from personal journal entries to a textbook I am working on for publication and everything in between.

One of the questions to consider is what would this bag have looked like 15 to 25 years ago. I’m confident there would have been no computer of any sort, and definitely no iPhone or cell phone. My work, which can now be done largely without paper, was very “paper-heavy” at that time. It would not be toted around with me as it is now. This is the result of progress in computer power, and I’m left wondering if it’s been a good thing or not.