This weeks chapter by Chipchase Hidden in Plain sight investigates the carrying mentality the general people have today.

The article brings up different aspects and terms including carrying behavior, range of distribution, center of gravity, point of reflection, yo yo strings and so on.

I have learnt that understanding carrying behavior can be fruitful to a designer as it affects people differently and in different arenas or places. I can see this carrying behavior in myself and also compare it to other people – in they way my schoolbag is often bigger and more packed with items I might think I will use the same day. On the same time I have friends who barely glance their items in their bags – which means in some situations – they rely on me.
think in my case, when you continuously follow these patterns, the point of reflection will thereby also change in the way you interact with people you are familiar with and how your belongings are used.

I think Chipcase brought up some good examples about the range of distribution and how it changes in public according to the physical environment and the people in the place (I like to use the terms actor-world and arenas).

Also the cultural aspect is interesting – especially the example with the Afghan Ministry and the change in payment which both had positive and negative side effects. Still, the case showed that it can be hard to change people habits or behavior which you also need to be aware of as designer (path dependency):

If you  can’t see it, you don’t own it (Chipcase, Chapter 4, p.118)

Again, I have also learnt that the carrying behavior can be seen in a more broader sence in the way we become more and more relying on digital systems and services which affect our behavior and habits. This both has an impact on our point of reflections but also how and what things you percieve as valuables.

I think it is interesting to see how digital services as Sportify, Netflix, Zipcar (In Denmark we have Drive Now https://dk.drive-now.com/en/) affect our emotional and personal attachment to items – which I believe have changed a lot through the recent 10 years.

(source: https://dk.drive-now.com/en/)

Lastly, it will be interesting to see how smart systems can predict your behavior which both can be a good and bad thing as it is hard to tell if it will be a kindly reminder or an onstacle if it can not read your mind properly.

Question 1:  With the continously digitization of items and systems how do you keep the emotional attachment to items?

Question 2: When you are relying on systems rather than personal items will you then be more vulnerable to changes?