creating vs consuming
Steven Jobs I mean , the guy who shaped so much of our use – and misuse – of computer and smartphone technology and how we interact with it.
In “good” ways, in “bad” ways ….
Since I have been unconditionally loving my MacBook Pro for a couple of decades now – iPhone as well for a while – and been a fan of the Apple product design and OSX Operation System ever since, I wish to also offer a little bit of a critique as well. Just for the sake of … balance : )
Creating
Way back in the beginning of “Personal Computing” in the late 1970s, Steve Jobs (who was the
Consuming
But then you, Steve had this crazy but revolutionary idea to put all this computing power into a tiny rectangle
idea and marketing genius ; ) and his friend Steve Wozniak (who was the electrical engineer) set out to build computers that would empower creative people. What they made possible to do at home, previously could only be done by companies or specialists for lots of money. They cut out the middleman.
They set out to build a multifunctional machine – something like the “Swiss Army Knife of Computers” – that would be The Tool for inspired people to do graphic design, music, book design, create games, edit videos, animations and the rest.
But not doing the dishes : )
They intended to build a computer that would be cool, powerful, as well as easy to navigate, intuitive to use and with an advanced operation system.
Very different from the grey and boring Windows Computers of Bill Gate’s Microsoft.
And they did it. They were successful.
Nowadays in most, if not all, graphic design firms, music studios, web design companies, architects’ bureaus, animation studios, video production studios and so on you will find MacBook and Apple computers all over the place.
The grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of this original Apple I, just tens of thousands of times more powerful and advanced than their granddaddy.
And – as you can witness in any Coffee shop the world over – the MacBook Pro now is also the number one choice of any self-respecting digital road-warrior : ).
If we are so inclined, we can load all kinds of advanced software into our Apple Army Knife – Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Premiere, Cubase Music Studio, Maya 3D, Ableton Life and so on.
There is a professional software now for any field we want to be creative in.
After going thru a pretty steep learning curve, we can do so many amazing things, things we could never have imagined possible only 40 years ago…
Without a doubt good old Steve has succeeded a thousand times over in empowering people – like me – to do all kinds of crazy things with his machines. Create all kinds of projects, produce all kinds of things, some useful and others, not so much.
Just for the fun of it.
Or to make a living.
From the convenience of my home, or my favorite restaurant. Or the beach : )
So, thank you Steve for initiating all of that.
thank you very much & gracias
May you rest in peace in the 7. Dimention of the heavens. You have always been a spiritual guy after all.
I Ommmm to that!
I Ommmm to that!
I Ommmm to that!
and call it the iPhone.
And every person on earth should have his/her own iPhone.
That’s why you called it the I Phone. I guess you knew what you were doing, sly marketing genius!
And so it happened. And people bought those phones in a frenzy. Every new iteration of it.
Really crazy. And crazy expensive.
It – the iPhone – made Apple one of the richest companies on the face of the earth.
It was pretty sleek, this phone. Very attractive, very easy to use, very powerful software, very useful as a phone and every possible thing on top of that.
Software producers immediately jumped on the offer from Apple to develop applications for the iPhone that could be sold – only – online on the Apple Store.
In this smart way Apple created a fenced-in-system and monopoly and made loads of money on the side from the developers.
And then Steve invented this … Selfie camera.
Whoa! OMG!!! What a fun!
You could finally make pictures of yourself.
And as many as you wanted.
No more just boring pictures of the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre.
Now you can make silly Selfies of yourself (and your friends) in front of the Eiffel tower. Or the Mona Lisa. And Selfie Videos.
And thousands of them.
And upload to your Pinterest, Facebook, Youtube, TikTok so everyone else can see you too.
It has become a real madness.
Of consuming all this stuff on your news feeds, keeping up with “friends” and perfect strangers and even commenting on all of that.
(“OMG!!!, So pretty! Awesome!!!!, LOVING IT ; )
It has also become a frenzy for the software developers to create all kinds of apps – hundreds of thousands by now – that we can use for free first and then buy (if we don’t like the advertisement).
Some of those apps are really helpful and handy to have and all.
But most of them add to the addiction that the iPhone and all the other smartphones that followed Apples lead created. Look around you in a crowded bus, subway, coffee house, at a family table, business, meeting. Even on the beach! You know what I mean.
People consume and consume and consume. This is what the phone – this communication device – has become. An addiction.
Of course, the industry helped in any way possible to exploit this addiction to this lovely little screen. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the rest, the Advertisement Industry has a field day and now we even have shrinks (psychotherapists ; ) who make a business to rid people of their phones.
Ok, ok I am exaggerating it a little bit!!!
But maybe not?
Obviously it is all Steve’s fault! !! !!! 
He started the whole thing in the first place, didn’t he?
ps.: I hope you noticed that i am just kidding about blaming somebody and about Steve.
I always love(d) the guy : )
pps: Disclaimer: If you find that this page acts up in strange and unexpected ways, don’t worry. Your computer has not been hacked ; ). I have – for the fun of it – programmed a few unusual behaviors & surprises into it. All is well. I promise not to do it again : )
Fun little article, Cris!
I both thank and curse the Gods for people like Steve Jobbs, Bill Gates, and Sergey Brin!
haha, what would we do without those guys ; )
But i guess you got my drift, right?