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Recent theoretical debates in the literature have taken up the themes of social and technological determinism in the context of actor network theory and structuration theory. This paper explores (computerised) machine agency from an action-based perspective. How is it that information technologies affect our actions, how can we marshal this property, and what can we do about the results if we don’t like them? In order to gain some purchase on these questions we distinguish between two styles of analysis and between two social systems or networks. Cross-sectional analysis is distinguished from longitudinal analysis. The ‘use ’ system, which enmeshes social practice and IT in our everyday activities is distinguished from the ‘development ’ system, which is responsible for putting the IT in place, maintaining and updating them. In the majority of workaday situations, cross-sectional analysis of the use system leads to the appearance of material agency. However longitudinal analysis of the development syste