• Dec 26, 2025
• Marketing

Marketing

Season 3, Episode 3: Wrapped With a Bow (and a Lock-In Clause)

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In this end-of-year episode of Surprise – It’s Not a Toaster, Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer take on the annual ritual of being “Wrapped.” What began as a fun reflection has turned into a full-blown platform performance review, with apps across music, social, productivity, fitness, and even calendars proudly telling you just how much of your life they consumed. Because nothing says personal growth like a branded slide deck about your screen time.

The conversation unpacks how year-end recaps quietly celebrate overuse, encourage public self-promotion, and reinforce platform lock-in. It’s the perfect Boxing Day episode: the wrapping paper is gone, the boxes are everywhere, and you’re left sorting through what you actually wanted versus what just showed up.

In part two, the SNAT Book Club continues with Enshitification by Cory Doctorow, diving into how platforms trap users, businesses, and regulators through lock-in, dependency, and the steady erosion of exit ramps. It’s a clean explanation of why leaving bad platforms feels harder every year and why things don’t improve on their own.

And because it wouldn’t be SNAT without testing the limits of artificial intelligence, the episode closes with a lighthearted experiment in whether today’s AI tools can offer genuinely useful guidance when faced with a very seasonal, very awkward real-world problem – with mixed results.

Streaming. Wrapped. Trapped. Boxed in.  Happy Boxing Day.

Mentions from the Show: 

• SNL – “Uber Eats Wrapped” skit
• Husk IRL YouTube page
• Enshitification book
• Chris Boyer on LinkedIn
• Ed Bennett on LinkedIn
• Chris Boyer website
• Ed Bennett of BlueSky
• Chris Boyer on BlueSky