Discuss an example of lock-in (not one of the examples on the wikipedia page) and how a consumer might be able to overcome the effects of lock-in.
One example of a lock-in would be most social networking websites, but more specifically, Facebook. Facebook allows users to put just about every aspect of their lives up on the site. It becomes sort of an investment for people. Just about every friend is on there that other social networking websites don't matter anymore. They are locked in to using Facebook because they already have their pictures up on there, their information (i.e. work info, interests, background), and their comments from friends. It would be too much work to switch over to a different social networking website and would probably be a waste of time since most people would stay on Facebook because it does its job and works well. It's so valuable to most people these days because it's become an essential part of keeping in touch with friends.
As far as overcoming this lock-in, I don't think in this case it's a matter of overcoming it. Since it doesn't cost money to switch over to a different product, it's really a matter of simply making the decision to stop using Facebook and going to a different website. It's not like a cell-phone provider that literally locks in a customer with a 2-year contract. Facebook is more of a lock-in when it comes to convenience for users. I doubt I'm making any sense, but the Facebook lock-in is a unique case compared to other lock-in situations I've read about through the class's RSS feed.
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