In the previous chapter, Chipchase did a research on the 3 important items in one’s bag — key, money, and mobile phone. In this chapter, Chipchase then move towards the research and study of “carrying behaviour”.

I’d agree to some of the behavioural study he shared in this chapter:

1)

“On public transit in China and Brazil you’ll often see riders wearing backpacks on their chests (or “frontpacks”), a strong indicator of a short range of distribution, a high risk of theft, and an acute awareness of that risk and the need to react quickly if errant hands start unzipping a pocket.”

I think one would behave in such a way out of security. For myself, when I traveled for the first time to China, my backpack would normally be placed at the front for safety purposes — as stated, to react quickly if errant hands start unzipping a pocket. However, I’ve started to realise that wearing the backpack at the front became a habit when I traveled overseas like, not only in China but also in Korea.

2)

“… mobile technology has dramatically changed people’s behaviours outside the home, from carrying less to remembering less to owning less.”

With the rise of mobile technology, people relied on digital maps rather than physical maps mostly as a choice of convenience. However, how much would an application help when it suddenly does not work at the time where one desperately needs it?

For example, I was using Google maps in Korea to search for the route to a destination but it was not able to locate. Thus I had to resort to a hardcopy map that I brought as an alternative to find my way.

Thus I feel that one should rely on technology as much as we rely on a physical tool.