Alyssa: That's a QR code link to the music video for Rick Astley's “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

[electronic music begins]

Kelton: The first one is a Sam Houston State sticker.

Nora: Some of them have the same like matching pastel color scheme.

Jake: The sushi—I tried to force her to eat sushi and she hated it.

Kelton: The second one is a Marist College sticker.

Jake: Dinosaur roller skating is from a roller-skating date.

Nora: Some of them are K-Pop references.

Alyssa: It's a Labrador Retriever in PPE.

Narrator: At the Ohio State University, laptops are everywhere. And so are are laptop stickers. Laptop stickers create what folklorists call an assemblage, which the American Folklife Center defines as a collection of items curated by untrained people. The decoration of an otherwise utilitarian object might also be considered a form of folk art. Today, you'll hear from OSU students Kelton, Alyssa, Jake, and Nora about forging connections and representing identities through their laptop stickers on campus.

Kelton: I got bored in the car one day and I was, um, trying to think of a fun thing to do, and I thought it'd be kind of fun thinking about or like trying to remember the, uh, college mascots for teams. So I would try to do as many as I could.

Narrator: This is Kelton, a BPS pharmacy student. Kelton has just three stickers on his laptop: Sam Houston State, Marist College, and Nashville Sound.

Kelton: And then my mom—I'd always ask her to quiz me on some of those, uh, mascots. And when she did quiz me, I'd always get them right. So, it got to the point where she thought I had an interest in it, and I did. I really liked, uh, just like the logos and the history, and I just—I just thought it was interesting.

I feel like not only each logo is a form of self-expression, but the concept of just kind of collecting logos and just expressing them on my laptop for the world to see... The concept of just collecting the obscure teams is interesting to me.

I feel like I would—if I were to encounter a person that actually went to the college, I—I'd probably have to explain that I didn't go there, but I feel like I'd still have a sense of community with them because, you know, I did a lot of research into their school to even get the sticker in the first place. And there's got to be something that intrigued me in the beginning with the logo or the team. Because, um, some of these obscure logos and teams, I have just like barely heard of and like they're just—they're somewhere in the back of my mind and I was like, “Oh, I guess that's pretty interesting. I had heard of these guys before.”

I think the more obscure it is or the lesser known, I feel like it's a little bit more interesting because you never know. My—my thing about the stickers is that if someone ever like were to recognize the logo, I'd immediately have like a talking point. And it would be kind of a weird situation to explain like, “Oh yeah, I have this sticker too,” but I feel like it's kind of interesting to start collecting them and have like a connection with, uh, with just somebody.

[Electronic music]

Alyssa: I don't like people asking me too many questions about like personal identity stuff without invitation.

Narrator: This is Alyssa, a neuroscience major and research assistant at The James. While an expressive person, she has some hesitations about revealing her sense of self to others.

Alyssa: Public face versus private face is a great way to put it. Some people are much more, uh, brave and bold about it than me. I like to control the flow of information. I put more stickers on my notebooks than I do on my laptop because my notebook is, uh, something that I can keep a little closer to myself. Um, kind of private that way. It feels like putting like—like it's a—it's a very revealing thing. Because like with my lesbian plague doctor sticker, I would be coming out to everyone who saw my laptop, right? And that can sometimes be a matter of personal safety. So, I mean, when it comes to a lot of things related to identity, I guess it comes down to anxiety that I don't put them on my laptop, and I mean, as ordinary as they seem or as trivial as they may seem, certain stickers can reveal a lot about a person. So, it's about contr—it's about public-facing and private-facing images and also the flow of information. Like who gets what information about me.

[Electronic music]

Jake Nelson: Um. I would say this one on the inside, which is a seagull eating a French fry, because we were on a—it was over the summer—

Narrator: This is Jake Nelson, a finance major at the Fisher College of Business. He has a wide variety of stickers, each with its own story.

Jake: We were on this like pirate ship thing with, um, her parents, which was just a really fun night. And then the meaning behind it is because there was some kid on the boat who saw a seagull and yelled out “cat” and it was just really funny and it—it's like something that her parents and, um, us always joke about. I would say that's—that's the one that I like the best.

I think most importantly are just things that you really can't do more than once. Like obviously you can go like axe throwing more than once, you can go roller skating more than once, but it's like that–­the first time with some like special person. Then also just maybe people who, um, have impacted your life. Like the dolphin kind of, I guess, represents my grandpa, um, who's no longer with us, but he impacted my life in big ways.

Every other one actually is from my girlfriend for our, um, I think it was for our one-year anniversary, part of the present was she just got me a bunch of different stickers from, like, each symbolizing a memory that we had.

I love her. And she gave me these stickers, so obviously she's a great inspiration who I spend a lot of great memories with. And she's very supportive and nice and pretty and funny and a great person to be around.

[Electronic music]

Nora: Even if the stickers are completely different from mine, I’m still gonna like appreciate the confidence that that person has to just like put their personality on everything.

Narrator: Nora, a Language Arts Education major, has a myriad of stickers on her laptop ranging from rainbows to K-Pop references. Nora is using a pseudonym.

Nora: I like—I love that. It makes me really happy to see people confident in themselves in that way. So, and also I feel like it's really insightful to get like a feel for the person's personality. It's an extension of the self. And I think that's what's so cool about it, and that's why I appreciate seeing it from other people because they're sharing that sense of self with you.

I do kind of wonder, do people see my laptop with all its bright colors, and then they see me wearing like all black? And is that a bit strange? Like should I have laptop stickers that are consistent with my sense of style? I feel like there's a lot of pressure to like—you know, it's all about the aesthetic nowadays. There is that pressure to conform, maybe not with like society so much, but being consistent with a certain aesthetic. But I think ultimately I've decided not to care because who has time for that?

I really hope that everyone who does put on their own stickers, you know, they do it for themselves, not for other people, not for an aesthetic. They just do it because they like the sticker, it makes them happy to see it, and it is uplifting, because ultimately like what you wear, what you do, all of it should be uplifting and self-fulfilling. Otherwise, it's not working for you, it's not doing anything for you. I don't want to say it's a waste of your time, but it could be energy better spent on self-actualization.

[electronic music]

Narrator: Everyone makes their own connection to others through the stickers on their laptop. What would otherwise be a lifeless machine is used as a canvas for expression within these groups. Subtle variations reveal how a common practice ties us to traditions we wouldn't otherwise recognize as folklore. It is these little practices that tie us into a greater group, whether we realize it or not. Thanks for listening.

[The song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) by Rick Astley]

Alyssa: I feel like having one single sticker that is a rick roll is a statement.