Whether you love Apple or hate them you cannot ignore the impact the company has had on the world as we know it. Specifically the world in which I have lived. Being born in the early 80s, I remember a time when there weren't computers in every home (you know, before Al Gore "invented the Internet"). My world went from one with landlines in every home, few cellular phones(you know, the ones with the corded receiver that came in a bag and stayed in the car), and a lot less channels on TV.
Then as all those things became mainstream and innovations moved forward in the computer industry, our world shifted. It changed into something we had never seen before, perhaps never even imagined. One of the people who will always be synonymous with the advancement of computers and technology, and of course smart phones, passed away today. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, died at age 56. I didn't know him personally, but many of the decisions he made in his lifetime have had a profound affect on mine. His innovations, along with the others in his field-- colleagues, competitors, friends, classmates-- have changed everything about the way I live my life. Every-day dependence on computers, smartphones, the Internet, is not something those a generation before me would have ever imagined. I would not have imagined it even at 16 when I got my first chunky cell phone that only functioned to actually make phone calls. His influence and ideas have shaped our world. And even though he wasn't the same kind of "world-changer" as Martin Luther King or Mother Theresa, he was still a "world-changer" and it leaves me a little sad tonight. It leaves me feeling like one of "the greats" has passed on.
Love Apple, or hate them, you can't deny the greatness of Steve Jobs.
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