Under the reins of mobile phone? social control, normalization and resistance

Mobile phones are an inclusive technology immersed in social network, whose associated practices participate forming the common subject. Nowadays, they are part of social control, normalization and resistance. These mechanisms have not been studied enough, and explaining them is the aim of this paper. Using concepts like power, tactics, strategies, and performativity, we will explain social control and then account for our aim. For gathering data, discussion groups were used and the analytical approach was thick description. Results indicate that mobile phones act as mediators, in a Bruno Latour sense. It means that in contacting someone those devices allow to happen, or not, different things, for instance, they modify their original intended functions by redefining relationships, and, in turn, favoring normalization, social control, and resistance. These processes produce a mutual reaction: the operation of power feeds resistance, and vice versa.