1GyAp2x

Work 331ducers. Further, these activities are often animated by a civic spirit ofsharing that takes “free culture” as a rallying point in working toward acultural commons that is not dominated by commercial interests. At thesame time, it is important to keep in mind the broader political economicconditions in which these kinds of engagements occur. Most of these moresophisticated forms of nonmarket online production are the province ofrelatively privileged youth who are pursuing these activities during collegeor other times in their lives when they are not under financial and timepressures to engage in domestic or paid work.While we should look to these youth practices as examples of highlyengaged forms of youth mobilization and creativity, we must also recognizehow they remain embedded in existing structural conditions of inequityand in a robust set of commercial practices that define the contoursof Web 2.0 industry. In many ways, the free-culture movement and industryattention to user-generated content are part of a cultural logic that isgrowing in salience and that defines a particular historic moment in theevolution of media and communications. We see youth innovation ascentral to defining these new genres of cultural participation, even as theyare very much under flux, through a complicated set of struggles betweendifferent media industries and sectors as well as the everyday activity ofyouth and adults.Box 7.5 Eddie: Neopets, Neocapital, and Making a Virtual BuckLaura RobinsonEddie is a precocious teen from California who is a self-described formerNeopets addict. In his words, “I loved the economic stimulation!” Significantly,while some players talk about the social aspects of the site, for Eddie,Neopets was a solitary activity. He explained that while it was okay to playwhile he was in junior high, by the time he got to high school the youngerplayers would tell the older players that they were too old. So Eddie continuedto play, alone, in secret, long after it was “cool” for someone his age to playthe game. For Eddie, the excitement of Neopets was rooted in the potentialfor economic activity; the interest in Neopets was almost solely for its economicventures. When asked about his relationship with his pet, he said witha laugh, “I think mine all died! I never checked on them.” For Eddie, theNeopets connection took place on the site’s simulated financial sector throughbank accounts and a stock market that absorbed all his attention. He elaborated,“I just wanted to hoard my cash to make more. I wouldn’t waste my