Steve Jobs and Apple

Many companies have tried to have large impacts on society, but rarely will they succeed. There have been a few cases where companies changed society in ways that it would be very difficult to change it back. Essentially these companies are game changes, inventors and innovators. And no innovator was more influential than Steve Jobs.  Over the past 30 years or so, Steve Jobs and his company Apple Inc. have completely changed the way our society functions to such a degree, that he can almost control our society. He revolutionized personal computers in the 80s and 90s. He then revolutionized how we listen and share music, followed by how we use phones or even watch TV. Essentially, if there is something electronic, Apple has influenced in some sort. One of the most prominent changes that they affected was the music industry. Before Apple created iTunes and iPod, people did not have an easy way of listening to music on the go. There was the Walkman, but you had to carry multiple CDs with you if you wanted to listen to a wide variety of music not predetermined by a playlist. Once iTunes and the iPod were introduced to the world, it proved to be a revolutionary way of listening to music that people loved. Soon the Walkman was completely out of date, and other companies had to create similar products to the iPod if they wanted to compete. The next big innovation that Steve Jobs and Apple came out with was the iPhone. It was one of the first smart phones with a touch screen that worked next to flawlessly. All of these innovations have changed how we view electronics. Apple has affected our society so much that almost all electronic devices you purchase have an Apple substitute. One of the most popular items is the MacBook Pro. A vast majority of college students buy one before they leave for schooling, and the number is growing. Based on the rate of Apple’s growth, MacBook Pros could soon be the only laptops you see in college classes, or even high school classes based on how early technology is being implemented into schooling. One of the biggest reasons why it was so obvious that Steve Jobs was so important to our society is his death. People went all out in mourning the great innovator’s death. He had changed the way we function in the 21^st century and we were scared how the world will look in the next few years without him. Without Jobs’ inspiration and creativity, how will innovations look in the future?

Media Diet

Over the course of the one-week that I took a log of what media I consumed, I found some interesting things. Most of my time is spent on the computer, which makes sense in today’s society. The majority of my homework is done on word, where I write essays. Whenever I need to do research, I use the Internet and Google, as opposed to going to the library. For my free time, I found that I almost always spend it looking it at a screen. A lot of the time I will be on my computer browsing Reddit and the Internet, and other times I will hang out in my floor’s lounge and watch television. On average I spent about 3-4 hours a day on my computer either browsing or writing essays and spent another half an hour to an hour watching television. I think this shows that I have become incredibly influenced by electronics. Even when I am out of the building, I always have my iPhone on me and can connect to the Internet and play games within a matter of seconds no matter where I am. I also found that I do little to no reading. Any reading I do is on the computer more often than not and it usually is short quirky stories that are finding their way around the web. Whenever I read actual books, it is only when I am required to do so in a class. Besides reading for homework, I pretty much never open a book. If I ever want to find out a news story, I can just look it up on the Internet. This method is much quicker and more convenient than finding a newspaper every day to read.  I feel that off hand, my media diet is less severe than some other teens. I think that the stereotype is that teens literally never leave the computer and I do not think I fit that role. I do use electronics a lot, but I think it is far less than some of my peers. This shows that America on the whole has become much more intrigued in media and is starting to use it more and more at an alarming rate. However, I do not think that media usage is universal throughout the states. I grew up in Palo Alto, CA, which is very close to being the heart of the Silicon Valley, so the Internet, computers, and electronics played a huge role in my society. I feel that in some more rural areas, media consumption is much less. 

Facebook

Off hand, it seems like online social networking plays a huge role in people’s lives. In high school, I definitely had a tendency to spend too much time online. I would always be on Facebook, posting new comments and reading friends posts and looking at their new photos. However, I rarely used other accounts such as Twitter or FourSqaure. To date, I have never made an account for those latter two sites. I would typically spend upwards of a couple hours a day reading new posts to stay up to date with my friends. Once college started, though, I began expanding which sites I would visit. A couple friends of mine introduced me to Reddit, and I was quickly hitched. Reddit is essentially an online forum where people can post cool things they have found around the web or in the world. Reddit also quickly led me to make an account on StumpleUpon, which is somewhat similar in that it will lead you to new parts of the Internet that you might otherwise ignore. Meanwhile, my use on Facebook has declined drastically. I occasionally will go a couple days without checking my news feed now. My best guess for why this happen is that I live down the hall to my friends who I would otherwise be keeping up with on Facebook. By easily being able to talk to them in person, I have eliminated the need to do so over the Internet.

            For the most part, I think the use of online interaction to be a positive thing, as long as it is within reason. If you let it get out of hand, and let it control how you live your life, then it obviously is a negative thing. But with moderation, Facebook can be a great tool to contact friends about an event or reconnect with people.  But with all those positives, there are also plenty of negatives. Privacy is at an all-time low; anything that you post can be easily seen by anyone on the Internet if you do not take the proper precautions. For some people, this can pose a big problem, but for the most part for myself, I have been able to avoid “over-sharing”. I try not to post too much petty things, and often try to screen what I post.  

Nexus Conference

On October 19^th, I went to the Nexus Conference and listened to the keynote speaker talk. At first when I was arrived, I realized that I was horribly underdressed. Wearing just a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, I stuck out like a sore thumb in a sea of suits and dresses. I quickly found a spot toward the back of Locatelli and listened to Kristine Pearson, a social entrepreneur, talk about her life and her work. Originally, she grew up in America, but by 1989 she had moved to, and became a citizen of, South Africa. She grew up in a pretty unstable household, having attended thirteen separate elementary schools. This possibly helped her decide that she wanted to help people with her life. After she visited several African countries, she knew that she had to do something to help them. So Kristine and her husband set out on their goal to get technology to the poor who cannot afford it but need it. They developed a radio that young children could crank to power. It gave children, most notably in Rwanda, hope and education by linking them to public sources of information. Kristine explained that its main purpose was to improve the quality of life, not necessarily create a consumer market. I was also struck by some of Kristine’s advice. She said that you should find out what your values are, and stick to them. Go with your gut instinct when given a dilemma. She also mentioned that people should work for something they love doing, not for the fame. Kristine did exactly this, as she helped hundreds, if not thousands, of kids receive useful information.