Various items from my daily bag
Items commonly in my bag include:
- Tablet with keyboard for reading and taking notes on the go
- Earbud headphones for listening to videos or audiobooks
- A medium sized unlined sketchbook for drawing illustrations, diagrams, or mind maps
- A small notebook for planning and writing out thoughts or notes
- An even smaller notepad for writing down simple ideas and bullet lists
- A variety of pens
- A physical book of some kind for when I am tired of staring at screens
These “texts” might give the impression that I am some kind of compulsive notetaker or doodler. This assumption would be partly true, although I would describe my use of these items more as tools for documenting my observations. Observations about what I am reading, observations about my own thoughts, observations about the world around me. If I am leaving the house with this bag, I am most likely placing myself publicly in society somehow whether working at a coffee shop or reading while having a snack (note the grease stains on my book) and I think this mobility could be predicted from the small and lightweight properties of the items.
Further, this exercise has made me realize that the texts in my bag are mostly “text technologies”. My notebooks and devices allow me to articulate and express language digitally over the internet, physically through written word, and through other abstract symbols formed in my sketchbook. The use of these items conveys that I likely have oral, written, and digital literacies in at least one language.
Upon comparing the narrative presented by the contents of my bag to how I outwardly present myself, I think the narrative is fairly consistent. I am constantly working on one thing or another, writing or doodling as I think. Perhaps one incoherent assumption from my bag contents might be that I am overly introverted or inhibited in my personality from the muted colours and amount of items related to recording language. I do not see myself this way, although I do probably lean more toward introverted characteristics in general, I just prefer to listen and ask questions in most situations but am also comfortable and happy to contribute to conversations in other ways.
In 1996 this bag would have probably had a sketchbook, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and a Nintendo gameboy with a Pokémon cartridge inside. Some things have changed, I don’t frequently play video games or eat candy anymore but the sketchbook remains. Perhaps I have only substituted the gameboy for more complex and less overtly gamified activities with my laptop and post-secondary education.
An archaeologist examining my bag might theorize that people in 2021 communicated with others mostly through devices, and communicated with themselves on paper. They might wonder what the purpose was of carrying so many modes of communication that seemingly perform the same function. One hypothesis might be that humans in 2021 were at a turning point before the singularity where we regularly blended text technologies or avoided putting all of our data online. Personally, I enjoy the physical act of putting pen to paper and the tangible connection that comes from creating a physical artifact even if only a brief note. The ritual of drawing and writing by hand is grounding and a welcome escape as someone who spends most of my waking hours looking at computer monitors and the screens of mobile devices for work and school