Apple puts Steve Jobs' picture on its official website, this is a grieved moment.
Steve Jobs was a genius. He proved the appeal of well-designed intuitive product over the sheer power of technology itself and shifted the way people interact with technology.
The widely successful products like iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac have fundamentally changed the industry of PC, electronics and digital media. Steve Jobs is a brilliant guy who has changed the way people using Internet, consuming music, books, TV programs, etc. Many doubts arise after Steve's death in that whether Apple is able to continue its creativity and rapid development in electronic and communication industry. Nearly all the Apple products, even the stairs inside Apple company and its retail stores were designed through the hands of Jobs. People are wondering whether future Apple products would be such brilliant, innovative and successful. Steve Jobs successfully branded himself the image of Apple vampire though, I'd rather believe Apple will continue building its legend as it's been expected, offering innovative and popular products to the customers. This is the scenario that both Steve Jobs and the publics would like to live.
The death was first announced by Apple and then around 8:00 p.m. on Oct. 5, main news media outlets like CNN and WSJ released the news on their website. But most of the first-known public were informed through social media before big traditional news media spoke out. Chinese facebook and twitter were blew up by people discussing and grieving over Job's death as early as around 6 or 7 p.m. Couple hours later, both Renren.com and Weibo put a section on the top of their main page advocating for sharing memories and condolences over Steve Jobs.
Announcement on Renren.com (Chinese facebook page)
Announcement on Weibo.com (Chinese twitter page)
We have to admit that social media is much faster in spreading news out than traditional news media. Even though traditional news media has used the prepared materials for Jobs' death, it turns out to be much slower compared to social media. However, traditional news media offers more in-depth and accurate information, which is an indispensable news source after people are informed with brief and might be inaccurate news. Google is writing "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011" right below its searching box. Many others all around the world are mourning over Steve Jobs' death in various ways for his genius mind, and infinite accomplishment to the world.
"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." Steve Jobs said in a commencement speech at Stanford University in June 2005, almost a year after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Thank you for giving so much to the world. Apple won't be the same without you, and our lives won't be the same without you too -- RIP Jobs, our beloved genius.
Great discussion and tribute to an inspiring individual. Since you discuss Chinese social media sites, did you see any major differences that may (or may not) reflect cultural values in the reporting and memorializing of Jobs? I think this would be a very interesting comparison specifically regarding social media because we know that culturally, death is often handled differently.
ReplyDeleteThanks Melly for bringing this out. Jobs' death was definitely a big news in China due to huge popularity of Apple products which dominate Chinese cellphone market currently. Therefore Jobs' death gained massive coverage by almost all Chinese big news media immediately. The way it was reported was basically the same with US media: memorizing his legend life, honoring his innovative contribution to the world and his spiritual leadership. On social media site, I can see however, not as many people mourning over Jobs' death know deeper than "he was the designer of iphone I used to post my micro-blog." Some are disappointed because they have lost a genius who might bring further surprise with iphone 5, 6, or more. There is also a dispute in people who didn't expect or think Jobs deserves that much attention based on his contribution to China. Individuals like Longping Yuan who invented hybrid wheat, which saves many Chinese's lives to a certain degree, deserves more respect by the publics and coverage by media. But there are more people and media pointing out that Jobs' death is provoking in that practitioners in technology or manufacture industries should learn from his innovative and creative thoughts in carrying out products that is beneficial to human being, rather than following other production and being a copycat.
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