- Items: Laptop, tablet, ear buds, work keys, lanyard, whistle, backup food, glasses cleaner, hand sanitizer, backup mask, and ear plugs. Conspicously absent though I still carry on my persons: GPS smart watch and smartphone.
- I don’t think I have a daily need for EACH of these items except for the laptop, ipad, ear buds, and keys. the rest of the items are the things I may need at some point.
- My items could be thought of as texts, in the sense that they have been both literally and figuratively woven together from materials. They are creations thought up by someone somewhere, and I am afforded their use for my purposes. I look at this picture and see someone who values efficiency of space for learning and creating (not carrying around books, notepads, and a bunch of pens), and safety redundancies (back up calories, mask, sanitizer, visual clarity, audio protection).
- My text technologies would be the four digital items: earbuds, digital pencil, tablet, and laptop, as well as the two absent items I carry around everywhere – my smartphone and my GPS watch. These items communicate that I would rather use networked texts than otherwise. I prefer the dynamic nature of texts that can change over time.
- My literacies would include technology (conventionally speaking) and safety. Some might accuse me of being a utilitarian.
- The contents of my bag match pretty well with who I outwardly project to the world; I’m a techie guy who cares about my health and wellness, be it safety or exercise. The noise-cancelling earbuds and earplugs give me moments of serenity when I need them most.
- 15 years ago my bag would be fundamentally different – a testament to the drastic change in values over that time. Everything from my worldview, values, consumer patterns, media, language, and behaviours has shifted. There might be a religious text, a small notepad, pencil, a digital camera, a wallet, and a swiss army knife.
- An archeologist might look at my current bag and infer a few things: that this person lived in a transitional period between physical texts and neurological texts. This person cared about keeping volume low, but consequentially weight was less of a factor, and therefore must have been comfortable to bear the weight of all these lithium-ion batteries. They would interpret this bag as belonging to someone who likes having information efficiently delivered (on-demand, hands-free, voice-activated, etc).