Technology Resistance and de Certeau: Deceptive texting as a Tactic of Everyday Life

Previous research has identified the “butler lie”—a lie told through text message to explain why someone is, was, or will be unavailable for interaction (Hancock et al., 2009). The concept of butler lying was established by Hancock et al. (2009, p. 519) who coined the term in allusion “to the social buffering function that butlers provided for their employers” when lying to visitors about whether family members were home. Several studies indicate that butler lies are a common means of managing social availability (Birnholtz et al., 2010; Birnholtz et al., 2013; Reynolds et al., 2013; Smith et al., 2014). Drawing on an interview based study into the experiences of telling and receiving butler lies via text message, this article argues that butler lies can be understood as a form of technology resistance as they represent an effort to evade the perpetual connectivity afforded by mobile communication technologies. However, as a quotidian and often habitual practice, one enacted through the technology it also resists, butler lies fall outside current conceptualisations of technology resistance which have tended to focus on self-reflexive acts of limiting or rejecting particular technologies. To aid in framing butler lies as a resistant practice, I turn to de Certeau’s (1984) concept of ‘“tactics” as a means of theorising mundane, habitual modes of technology resistance. In doing so, I seek not only to introduce butler lying as a concept of technology resistance, but to demonstrate the significance of developing the largely latent connections between de Certeau and research on technology resistance.