My Junk
With my first attempt at describing the contents of my person last week, I merely related them to me. Taking a step back and using my junk as a sample of the society in which I live as a whole, I can see some trends that lead me to certain conclusions.
My collection of entertainment-related items describes a society that is constantly seeking pleasure over knowledge. There’s nothing to be gained by playing a portable game system or by watching a DVD about a super-hero porn spoof other than the moments of enjoyment that accompany each activity. No one is going to walk away from playing Resident Evil DS thinking that they learned something and becoming a better person for it. While an argument could be made for novels, that they can be seen as both for entertainment and learning, the novel in my possession is purely entertainment. HP Lovecraft wrote “weird fiction,” in essence, sci-fi without much in the way of science.
The number of different forms of identification that I had on me (everything from two student ids from different schools to a library card) shows a society that requires identification for many different circumstances, but is fractured enough to not have a universal ID that would cover everything.
The abundance of fast food receipts in my wallet describes a society that values speed and convenience over health when it comes to food, while the casualness of the clothing shows a society that doesn’t care about its outward appearance (and we all know how true that is). The lack of any form of tradable currency while instead having two methods of virtual currency shows a society that has faith in a completely ethereal form of tender, that they can only take the word of a machine that the tender is valid and transfers ownership thereof appropriately.
In summation, a fractured society, faithfully trading streams of data for currency, focused on entertainment and proving one’s identity, that doesn’t care about eating healthy or dressing stylishly.