Steve Jobs

By Richard Kim

Death and irony come hand in hand at times, such was the case for the creative mastermind, Mr. Steven Jobs who had passed away only a day after Apple released the disappointing announcement of iPhone 4S instead of the anticipated iPhone 5. Were there correlations between the plummeting Apple shares and the demise of one of the most brilliant and creative genius of 21st century? What a horrendous and abhorrent thought, however it would have surely crossed a few people’s minds or at least, most cynics. This is not a homage to the creative genius that had brought back a mediocre company back into one of the greatest IT juggernauts of the century nor the creative mind that had went beyond the designs and brought out product after product of sheer brilliance and liable quality that had ridiculous amount of sales and fandom behind him but rather an aftermath of the man and his works that he had left behind. Needless to say, for those who are on social media would have been flooded in newsfeeds of Facebook and Twitter that the retired CEO, Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs had passed away. Any death is tragic let alone a death of a well-known individual. It was a cultural phenomenon as individuals had posted on social media network, their condolences and sympathy for the Mr. Jobs on their portable mobile devices, some clever and some were clichéd.
Amongst the popular were “iSad” and the clever South Park tag line from one of the episodes “They took our jeerrrrbbbss” (South Park Season 8 Episode 6). Some were just hateful bashing of the individual, which might seem a little disrespectful however rather understandable. Mr. Steven Jobs had ridiculous amount of social and cultural influence in the lives of everyone in the 21st century yet the people who had used his products had never met the man except from annual conference of Apple, where he would excitedly announce new products for the people to spend their wage on. As cynical as it may sound and heartless even, many amongst the generation between X and Y had argued that Mr. Jobs is not a humanitarian and his death should not be made to be so dramatic. Suffice to say, there are always two sides of the story, a subjective side and an opposing subjective side. It is true that Mr. Jobs had never donated generous quantity of money to any foundation in his time and that the people hardly know much about him nor hold much interest. He was a successful geek who had an idea that made him countless amount of money, he was an anti-hero for most out there. Mr. Jobs never cured cancer or invented a product that could benefit mankind but rather created objects of desires and wants. He was the anti-Tyler Durden of Fight Club from Chuck Palahniuk’s fiction, where the character states that people work jobs that they hate so they can buy things that they don’t need. Mr. Jobs was never an endorser in products of needs but rather creating products that people would want but he was very very good at it. Some will go into extremes to buy his products, circa few months back where a Chinese boy had sold one of his kidneys to purchase the newest iPad 2. Having used the term anti-hero on an individual who had recently passed away could come off as disrespectful and ignorant but the term does not necessary mean that Mr. Jobs was an antagonist in the world. He was the anti-hero in terms of his undeniable success, he was an extraordinary geek that had the coolest ideas but wore turtleneck sweaters with faded Levis jeans and new balance sneakers. Some may be thinking, that the comparison can be made between Jobs and Zuckerberg, inventor of Facebook and youngest billionaire in the history of mankind. In the autobiography and the highly rated film by David Fincher “Social Network”, Zuckerberg is not a portrayal of popular individual and does not come to off as a humanitarian in the aforementioned works.

Difficult would be the biggest underestimation to describe an attempt to summarise any individual’s life and if the subject has had as much impact as Steve Jobs then it is an excruciatingly harsh task. However Steve can summarized as an entrepreneur who had believed in media convergence, he had integrated a hard drive with a compact disc player to make the ever popular iPod, a phone that had converged everything in one in an iPhone and the miniature notebook with an iPod to make the iPad. Many had been quoting his famous lines from his press conferences and speeches but he was a man of product rather than his speeches.

The cultural significance that Mr Jobs has had on society can be noted by just simply looking around, he was a god of mass consumerism that would have Marx nodding in his defeat. He had made sure Apple products were not compatible with other devices and created an unbreakable bond between the Apple products that only synergy that could occur between other organisations were for them to bow their heads and kneel to Apple in submission.

He was a dictator, selfish perhaps and stubborn. He was everyone’s anti-hero, for those who had worshipped him had been written off as children of mass consumerism and media convergence that would take over the world. He was ambitious and creative, however he was human after all. All the money in the world and the fame could not stop Steve Jobs from passing by and all we have left behind is the slogan of placing small letter “i” followed by any word and countless Apple products. It is difficult to know how Apple will survive the latest downfall of stock and passing of Mr Jobs, they have a long journey and lawsuit ahead of them. Never the less, greatest respect for Jobs in terms of his achievements and creativity and may his family cherish only the best memories of an individual that society hardly knew about. On a bitter note, there are already studios that are working on a feature about Mr Jobs and his life.

One of his famous Speech