Network connections failing, logins not functioning, and servers not responding evoke both affective sharpness and disturbing itchiness that cannot be easily smoothed out. This article draws on forty-five student essays describing the sensations evoked by technological failure and explores them as vignettes into the affective dynamics evoked by constant connectivity to, and dependency on, network media. By asking how the essays articulate and configure the notion of “the user,” the article suggests that devices and applications are the loci of potentiality that may or may not be available and which impact—increase, sustain, or diminish—the users’ capacity to act. Furthermore, it argues that visceral responses to technological failure are intimately tied to the uncertainty and instability of users’ sense of control in ways that call into question the very notion of “the user” itself.
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