Prosumer capitalism: New paradigm or business as usual?

Re-reading Ritzer and Jurgenson's "Production, Consumption, Prosumption" article  reinforced the reason I always found the concept of the prosumer interesting as an undergraduate. The prosumer, a term coined to describe the blurring of the lines between consumer and producer, is often associated with the rise of social media/web 2.0 and its user-generated content, despite the word and the concept pre-dating Web 2.0. Ritzer and Jurgenson  argue that the capitalism in the age of the Web 2.0 prosumer is being radically transformed because capitalists cannot control prosumers the same way they control producers and consumers, prosumers cannot be seen as exploited the same way because they are having fun, a new economic form is emerging, and prosumer capitalism is based on abundance (p.21-22).

I see some merit in some of their points though I must question their second point. It is true that reading and writing blogs or making and watching YouTube videos are fun activities, and building social capital online can be its own reward, giving the third point some weight. Yet, I cannot help but wonder if fun or social capital is worth YouTube or Facebook profiting from giving our data to advertisers or other third parties, or if Web 2.0 platforms profiting from mergers with traditional co-operations-see Huffington Post and AOL-at the expense of unpaid prosumers, is not just another form of exploitation. Whether prosumer capitalism presents a new paradigm in capitalism, or business as usual is certainly a question for me without easy answers.

                                                           References
Ritzer, G., & Jurgenson, N. (2010). Production, Consumption, Prosumption : The nature of capitalism in  the age of the digital 'prosumer'. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10, 13-36.