Antin Judd - Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: kids living and learning with new media

Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning

Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Childrens Software by Mizuko Ito

Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media by Mizuko Ito, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Z. Martnez, C. J. Pascoe, Dan Perkel, Laura Robinson, Christo Sims, Lisa Tripp, with contributions by Judd Antin, Megan Finn, Arthur Law, Annie Manion, Sarai Mitnick, David Schlossberg, and Sarita Yardi

Inaugural Series Volumes

These edited volumes were created through an interactive community review process and published online and in print in December 2007. They are the precursors to the peer-reviewed monographs in the series.

Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth, edited by W. Lance Bennett

Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility, edited by Miriam J. Metzger and Andrew J. Flanagin

Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected, edited by Tara McPherson

The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning, edited by Katie Salen

Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media, edited by Anna Everett

Youth, Identity, and Digital Media, edited by David Buckingham

HANGING OUT, MESSING AROUND, AND GEEKING OUT

Kids Living and Learning with New Media

Mizuko Ito
Sonja Baumer
Matteo Bittanti
danah boyd
Rachel Cody
Becky Herr-Stephenson
Heather A. Horst
Patricia G. Lange
Dilan Mahendran
Katynka Z. Martnez
C. J. Pascoe
Dan Perkel
Laura Robinson
Christo Sims
Lisa Tripp

with contributions by
Judd Antin, Megan Finn, Arthur Law, Annie Manion,
Sarai Mitnick, David Schlossberg, and Sarita Yardi

The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England

2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

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This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ito, Mizuko.

Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out : kids living and learning with new media / Mizuko Ito.

p. cm. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series in Digital

Media and Learning

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-262-01336-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Mass media and youthUnited States. 2. Digital mediaSocial aspects United States. 3. Technology and youthUnited States. 4. LearningSocial aspects.

I. Title.

HQ799.2.M352I87 2010

302.23'108350973dc22

2009009932

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the memory and ongoing legacy of Peter Lyman.
His vision, passion, and leadership have guided this project
and animated its spirit of interdisciplinary, collaborative work.

Contents

Series Foreword

Acknowledgments

Notes on the Text

INTRODUCTION

1 MEDIA ECOLOGIES

Lead Authors: Heather A. Horst, Becky Herr-Stephenson, and Laura Robinson

Box 1.1 Media Ecologies: Quantitative Perspectives

Christo Sims

Box 1.2 Michelle

Lisa Tripp

Box 1.3 You Have Another World to Create: Teens and Online Hangouts

C. J. Pascoe

Box 1.4 The Techne-Mentor

Megan Finn

Box 1.5 zalas, a Digital-Information Virtuoso

Mizuko Ito

2 FRIENDSHIP

Lead Author: danah boyd

Box 2.1 Sharing Snapshots of Teen Friendship and Love

Katynka Z. Martnez

Box 2.2 From MySpace to Facebook: Coming of Age in Networked
Public Culture

Heather A. Horst

3 INTIMACY

Lead Author: C. J. Pascoe

Box 3.1 The Public Nature of Mediated Breakups

danah boyd

Box 3.2 Bob Andersons Story: It Was Kind of a Weird Cyber Growing-Up Thing

Christo Sims

4 FAMILIES

Lead Author: Heather A. Horst

Box 4.1 The Garcia Family: A Portrait of Urban Los Angeles

Katynka Z. Martnez

Box 4.2 The Miller Family: A Portrait of a Silicon Valley Family

Heather A. Horst

Box 4.3 The Milvert Family: A Portrait of Rural California

Christo Sims

5 GAMING

Lead Authors: Mizuko Ito and Matteo Bittanti

Box 5.1 Neopets: Same Game, Different Meanings

Laura Robinson and Heather A. Horst

Box 5.2 First-Person Play: Subjectivity, Gamer Code, and Doom

Matteo Bittanti

Box 5.3 Learning and Collaborating in Final Fantasy XI

Rachel Cody

Box 5.4 Machinima: From Learners to Producers

Matteo Bittanti

6 CREATIVE PRODUCTION

Lead Authors: Patricia G. Lange and Mizuko Ito

Box 6.1 MySpace Is Universal: Creative Production in a Trajectory of Participation

Dan Perkel

Box 6.2 All in the Family

Patricia G. Lange

Box 6.3 Making Music Together

Dilan Mahendran

Box 6.4 **Spoiler Alert**: Harry Potter Podcasting as Collaborative
Production

Becky Herr-Stephenson

7 WORK

Lead Author: Mizuko Ito

Box 7.1 Im Just a Nerd. Its Not Like Im a Rock Star or Anything

Mizuko Ito

Box 7.2 Technological Prospecting in Rural Landscapes

Christo Sims

Box 7.3 Being More Than Just a Banker: DIY Youth Culture and DIY Capitalism in a High-School Computer Club

Katynka Z. Martnez

Box 7.4 Final Fantasy XI: Trouncing Tiamat

Rachel Cody

Box 7.5 Eddie: Neopets, Neocapital, and Making a Virtual Buck

Laura Robinson

CONCLUSION

Appendix I: Project Overview

Appendix II: Project Descriptions

Appendix III: Project Index

Bibliography

Index

Series Foreword

In recent years, digital media and networks have become embedded in our everyday lives and are part of broad-based changes to how we engage in knowledge production, communication, and creative expression. Unlike the early years in the development of computers and computer-based media, digital media are now commonplace and pervasive, having been taken up by a wide range of individuals and institutions in all walks of life. Digital media have escaped the boundaries of professional and formal practice, and the academic, governmental, and industry homes that initially fostered their development. Now they have been taken up by diverse populations and noninstitutionalized practices, including the peer activities of youth. Although specific forms of technology uptake are highly diverse, a generation is growing up in an era where digital media are part of the taken-for-granted social and cultural fabric of learning, play, and social communication.

This book series is founded upon the working hypothesis that those immersed in new digital tools and networks are engaged in an unprecedented exploration of language, games, social interaction, problem solving, and self-directed activity that leads to diverse forms of learning. These diverse forms of learning are reflected in expressions of identity, how individuals express independence and creativity, and in their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically.