The reality behind people's reactions to Steve Jobs' death striked me when I read a friend's tweet, which can be summarized as, "I don't understand the whole fuss that is still going on about his death. Did he give out those Ipads and Iphones for free?" Some people may judge, but I think there was a sincere criticism in my friend's reaction. I believe that the same type of cynical perspective towards people's reactions could be observed in a humorous Onion article, which was titled: "Apple User Acting Like His Dad Just Died." or this photo which I found posted on my friend's wall and has a clear social message:
To be honest, when I logged into my Facebook account on the day of his death, and came to the realization (for it took me a while to actually understand from the status updates) that Steve Jobs died, I was incredibly sad. There was a knot in my throat and a feeling of incredulity in my head. Was the guy who invented the gadget, through which I was reading the news of his death, really dead? To me, it was mind-boggling. But as Jobs pointed out in his famous Stanford speech, death is a reality that awaits all of us, and he happened to arrive at this ultimate reality at a relatively young age than most others.
I did not tweet or update my facebook status with Steve Jobs related content. But I was so moved with the homepage of Apple that I decided to send an e-mail involving a little anecdote of me and my father at the Apple Store to rememberingsteve@apple.com. However, my not tweeting or not writing a status update does not matter b/c facebook and twitter has been overflowing with Steve Jobs related posts since his death. It's no debate that many young people idolize him and put him in the ranks of many great pioneers and scientists such as Da Vinci and Newton. They believe that Jobs is the genius of our generation which people years from now will talk about. I cannot say I disagree with these opinions. I do agree that Steve Jobs was the genius of our generation who brought great change to the way we use technology. But my friend's tweet I mentioned earlier had a point. And it separates Jobs distinctly from those inventors and pioneers that he is put in the ranks of.
I believe that aside from having an ingenious mind, Jobs had an analytical perspective into the human nature. We can discuss whether this was from his own observations or his experimentation with LSD, which he seemed to value highly, but he knew that being a genius was not enough, especially in the societal and economical conditions of the modern world. To be labelled as a genius by the millions, he knew he had to sell that genius. And this is what distinguishes him from Da Vinci, Newton, and such. If he had not marketed the idea that he was the great, revolutionary renegade behind Apple, we would not still be writing about him now. I am guessing that his death would have been greatly mourned, but he would not have been idolized to this extent. And this is the reason I also agree with my friend who wrote that cynical tweet on Jobs. Yes, he was brilliant. Yes, he was ingenious. But he is not a scientist or a thinker who left behind a free heritage of thought. And if we are mourning his death and making such an idol of him, why not pay our respects to those whose inventions or discoveries might not seem as tangible as Jobs' Iphone, but nevertheless will have a great impact on our thinking and living in the future?
To be honest, when I logged into my Facebook account on the day of his death, and came to the realization (for it took me a while to actually understand from the status updates) that Steve Jobs died, I was incredibly sad. There was a knot in my throat and a feeling of incredulity in my head. Was the guy who invented the gadget, through which I was reading the news of his death, really dead? To me, it was mind-boggling. But as Jobs pointed out in his famous Stanford speech, death is a reality that awaits all of us, and he happened to arrive at this ultimate reality at a relatively young age than most others.
I did not tweet or update my facebook status with Steve Jobs related content. But I was so moved with the homepage of Apple that I decided to send an e-mail involving a little anecdote of me and my father at the Apple Store to rememberingsteve@apple.com. However, my not tweeting or not writing a status update does not matter b/c facebook and twitter has been overflowing with Steve Jobs related posts since his death. It's no debate that many young people idolize him and put him in the ranks of many great pioneers and scientists such as Da Vinci and Newton. They believe that Jobs is the genius of our generation which people years from now will talk about. I cannot say I disagree with these opinions. I do agree that Steve Jobs was the genius of our generation who brought great change to the way we use technology. But my friend's tweet I mentioned earlier had a point. And it separates Jobs distinctly from those inventors and pioneers that he is put in the ranks of.
I believe that aside from having an ingenious mind, Jobs had an analytical perspective into the human nature. We can discuss whether this was from his own observations or his experimentation with LSD, which he seemed to value highly, but he knew that being a genius was not enough, especially in the societal and economical conditions of the modern world. To be labelled as a genius by the millions, he knew he had to sell that genius. And this is what distinguishes him from Da Vinci, Newton, and such. If he had not marketed the idea that he was the great, revolutionary renegade behind Apple, we would not still be writing about him now. I am guessing that his death would have been greatly mourned, but he would not have been idolized to this extent. And this is the reason I also agree with my friend who wrote that cynical tweet on Jobs. Yes, he was brilliant. Yes, he was ingenious. But he is not a scientist or a thinker who left behind a free heritage of thought. And if we are mourning his death and making such an idol of him, why not pay our respects to those whose inventions or discoveries might not seem as tangible as Jobs' Iphone, but nevertheless will have a great impact on our thinking and living in the future?
