ABSTRACT
Within the past few years, compositionists have increasingly come to rely on the term “digital tools” when discussing writing and new media. That the term routinely occupies the title of conference panels, books, and chapter titles suggests a sort of “matter-of-factness” surrounding its use in the fi eld. As such, the term digital tools represents an object of study-the pragmatic equivalent of digital media or new media, both of which seem to leave too loose a relation to writing. Contrary to this trajectory, I regard so-called digital tools not as a topic or object of study but as a position with regards to that object-a certain way (and certainly not the only way) of occupying digital media. Indeed, the latter half of this essay proposes an alternative stance, which is inspired by ecological approaches to writing, technology, and the production of subjectivity.
