Subject: [the3six5] October 6, 2011:
October 6, 2011: Bradley Machov
I wake up most days worried that I’ll have nothing to write about. Maybe I’ll feel too boring to write something interesting, or too tired to write at all. Maybe the biggest news story for the day will just be an announcement that Neil Patrick Harris is hosting another awards show.
Today was not one of those days.
As I found out when I got home last night, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple computers, finally succumbed to the cancer he had been battling for years.
I’ve spent my day trying to figure out what his death means to me. It’s weird, and a little embarrassing to admit, but Steve Jobs has had more of an influence on my life than everyone but roughly fifteen people. By my estimate I’ve spent close to $2,000 dollars on Apple or Apple-related products—and that’s probably below average for an urbanite 23-year-old. I’ve never known a world without Jobs’ presence. I have an iPod and a MacBook, and the only reason I don’t have an iPhone is because I don’t want Apple completely running my life. I have been alive long enough to remember buying music in stores, but iTunes has been around for such a large chunk of my life, and it has so fundamentally affected the way I gather music and information, that it’s impossible to explain how my life would be different without it.
Our relationships with public figures like Jobs will always be different than our relationships with friends and family (despite TV’s insistence that they be the same). Jobs didn’t just enter my life, like TV and movie stars, only at the times when he asked for my attention; he entered my life, stayed, and ultimately altered the way I live it. Because of him my music buying is easier, my radio listening is more convenient, and if I ever were to try and make a movie, that too would be with his help. He’s an inspiration to millions, and personally, someone I flat out respect. The world will go on without him, but this day, rightly, has been all about him.
About the author: Bradley Machov likes to write. Contrary to what it may seem, he is NOT an Apple fanatic. See some more at bradleymachov.com
Posterous Spaces is the place to post everything. Just email us.
RichardBeGone 