Hello my name is Evan, and this is my last term in the MET program. I live in Vancouver, and my background is in teaching ESL. Currently I’m the manager of a learning centre at a private college, and my work primarily focuses on student support, helping students develop their academic and writing skills and educating about academic integrity. As a manager, my clothes are typically business casual, and my bag reflects that.

The bag I’m sharing is my daily work bag. It contains the following:

• Notebook and pen – I use this primarily for work to take notes during meetings or jot down thoughts or to do lists while I’m commuting to work.
• Phone charger – This is self explanatory, as I have my phone on me at all times and use it throughout the day.
• Gloves – These are a seasonal addition for when the weather is particularly cold on my morning commute.
• Cloth bag – I often stop at a food market on my way home from work and use this to pack and carry anything I buy.
• Food container – This usually contains a snack, as I’ll often get hungry mid morning while I’m working.
• Disposable masks – These are sort of a holdover from the Covid-19 pandemic, though I’ll wear one if I start getting a cold or other illness.
• Bandaids – The shoes I wear are not always comfortable, and I sometimes get blisters.
• Airpods – I use these every day on my commute to listen to music or podcasts.

Altogether, there is nothing particularly surprising about these items. Though I recognize I am biased, I don’t think any of these items would look out of place in the bag of another adult professional that commutes to work in Vancouver. Many of them can be considered texts in the sense that they are symbolic and give clues to the priorities and living context of the owner they belong to. For instance, the cloth bag and container are there because I’m trying to be environmentally conscious by avoiding disposable bags and a little bit frugal by preparing snacks at home rather than purchasing prepackaged items. The Airpods and phone charger show that I regularly use mobile technologies. The gloves suggest that I live in a colder climate (though not everyone considers the Vancouve area cold). And the masks could tell someone that I am health conscious or at least considerate of the health of those around me.

You might also notice that the masks, gloves, and bag are all black. This was a deliberate choice, as they match the dark pants, shoes, and jackets that I often wear. 

The notebook and pen are not so much texts as they are text technologies. They are items used to produce text and represent a very old form of communication, but I use them in a very modern way. Historically, text has been seen as authoritative and concrete, presenting those ideas considered particularly important ([1.5] Thinking about Text Technology). Yet, I use the notebook only to write brief notes, thoughts or ideas, many of which I don’t consider important. If I write meeting notes in my notebook, I will later review them and type out the important information in a Google Doc on my computer, leaving the unimportant stuff on the pages of my notebook. So, the printed text in my notebook contains a lot of useless information, some of which I don’t remember why I wrote and the important things are all digital. This is quite different from how people viewed text in the past because I view the notebook as disposable, whereas I see the text I transfer to a Google Doc as the most significant and authoritative. In my mind, the text on my screen is more permanent because it’s saved online and accessible from any computer at any time; meanwhile, if I spill a cup of coffee on my notebook or lose it somewhere, the contents are gone forever.

Looking at the items, there are a few traces of actual text (i.e., writing). The Bandaids have English text, the notebook has “notebook” written on the front, and the Airpod case has my initials engraved on the front. The notebook and charger imply that I am literate, since literacy is often required to use a smartphone. Yet, none of these items give enough clues as to the languages I speak. The text on the Bandaid is written in English, but this only implies it was purchased in an English dominant country. The owner could easily use all of these things while speaking and understanding a different language. 

One of the key components of text is communication. The items in my bag may be seen as text because they have the capacity to transmit ideas or information from one person to another. In this activity, the act of presenting them to an audience achieves that communication. However, most of the time these items are hidden away in my bag and not seen by other people – they are only for my own use. If no transmission of ideas or information is intended or achieved with these items, can they really be considered texts? Are they texts only some of the time? These are questions I will continue exploring through this course.