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This form of interfacing has generated concerns both about usability and about how users relate tactilely and affectively with digital media. This article suggests that worries about these discursive and material shifts related to finger force and flat design continue a conversation begun &gt;100\u2009years ago when the very concept of a \u201cbutton\u201d was new. Stitching together past and present, this study identifies a persistent struggle to make sense of how humans touch and feel machines, with questions about user agency, labor, individuality, and authentic engagement coming to the fore. Additionally, it makes a case for encouraging scholars to work at the intersection of history and haptic media systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444817717510","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,8,17]],"date-time":"2017-08-17T07:58:35Z","timestamp":1502956715000},"page":"1632-1652","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Force, flatness and touch without feeling: Thinking historically about haptics and buttons"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Rachel","family":"Plotnick","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,8,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1461444817717510","first-page":"259","volume-title":"Shaping Technology\/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change","author":"Akrich M","year":"1992"},{"key":"bibr2-1461444817717510","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alexander J, Hardy J, Wattam S (2014) Characterising the physicality of everyday buttons. 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