Abstract
Users of mobile phones, computers and other digital media devices are increasingly confronted with what Lessig calls ‘architectural control’. This article presents results from a study which reveals that users adopt four tactics in negotiating architectural control: modifying use, modifying the technology, decreasing use and acceptance. Users consent in two ways: by internalizing control through incorporating architectural constraints into their embodied practice, and by responding to the convenience of architectural controls and the complexity of far-flung collective digital systems. Thus it is argued that modification and adaptation in everyday practices of digital media and information communication technologies (ICTs) is a type of consent rather than resistance to digital control.
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