Hidden in Plain Sight, “You Are What You Carry”
Jan Chipchase

As an avid user of the mobile phone, I’ve took for granted its features and capabilities and rarely the thought occurred to me of how people in the past could have lived day to day without the convenience of it. I felt that the chapter had overall provided a new outlook on our habits and behaviours when utilizing the product.

In terms of our carrying behaviours, Chipchase had mentioned that we have our needed things right where we need them and also, using memory and proximity to help us keep track of the ‘everyday objects’. I learnt about the “range of distribution”, where he analyses how far a person can feel comfortable without their personal belongings in public and “centers of gravity” where portable objects tend to cluster.

It reminds me of how much we carry each day; Some of us may carry the bare minimum like wallet, phone and keys, while some creatives like me would bring our sketchbook and art materials to sketch, on top of the the basic necessities as to how tourists bring a camera and etc. I would like to compare the two terms, “range of distribution” and “centers of gravity” as to how a person would not be able to survive or ‘function’ in the outdoors when they do not bring anything at all. As what Chipchase had mentioned, “the easiest way to never forget anything is to never have anything to remember”.

Question 1: Would a person not carrying anything, have a purpose to be outdoors?

Chipchase went on to how much we can “fit” everything into our phones. Like a camera, music player, documents and to add on, even mobile wallet services (e.g Android Pay, Google Wallet …). When I visited Delifrance a few weeks back, I was told by the cashier that I could pay by just tapping my NETS(debit) card on the reader. I decided to try because it was something new and after she had helped me to ‘tap’. While it’s convenient as I did not have to type in my PIN/sign anything, it also scares me to see the fast process of my money being deducted. It led me to think about theft/stealing in a digital aspect. The fast, unpredictable and unseen.

Question 2: Do you think that the convenience of a service/product is more susceptible to theft?