You have changed our lives and those of our children in ways we have only begun to understand.
Steve Jobs passed away the same day my son turned nine. My kids can barely recall their life before the iPhone, iPad and downloadable apps. The world Steve envisioned and created through Apple is so deeply woven into our lives. So much that it provided the inspiration for this blog.
Our indoctrination into the i-generation occurred when we moved to Palo Alto, which lays claim as a sort of ground-zero for the creation of Apple. Many ideas came out of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Steve was a local figure in town. He grew up in nearby Mountain View. His kids went to our schools and his Halloween decorations are legendary, so his life and passing is being widely discussed in our paper.
Of course this is not just a Silicon Valley thing. The homes of my friends elsewhere are filled with daily banter about earning "screen time" and the quality of latest apps so-and-so's dad downloaded.
When we told the kids that Steve Jobs had died, my neighbor compared him to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. That seems valid enough for the high tech population, but we will not know for years just how far reaching his global impact will be. Apple products remain out of reach for much of the world's population.
My first computer experiences were on an Apple 2e in the university computer lab (yes, I am that old!). Yet until five years ago, we were an all Microsoft house. I worked there for a decade and even met my husband at Microsoft in Redmond, WA.
Christmas 2006 brought an iPod and Sounddock into our home. Out went the 15-year old stereo and CD player. When I left work and my company-issued laptop, in came the MacBook I'm using right now. Enter the iPhone. The iPad. Now the kids' lives were enriched, too.
When our Dell PC died last January, we barely noticed, so enchanted we were by the iPad. Our music comes from Pandora or iTunes via iPhones and iPods. The kids use MacBooks in the classroom. Their teachers have iPads. I have incredible respect for Bill Gates and many people who have worked at Microsoft over the years, but there is no denying the impact of Steve Jobs - or that we are fully drenched in the iKool-Aid of Silicon Valley.
Living here means your neighbors are typically into computers - as hobby and profession. Ironically, the day of Jobs' passing was also the day our house was transformed into an all Apple household through the delivery of a used PowerMac G5 that will become our "family PC."
So the PC on our desktop now is a Mac.
My kids will use it for school and for fun. The world envisioned by Steve is the world they will know. It is the world in which they will grow. It's an engaging, entertaining, educational and amazing world. I'll forever cherish the joy on my 88-year old grandmother's face the first time she could see and speak with my kids - 3000 miles away - courtesy of Skype and the iPad2. It was easy to set up and easy to do and it enriched our lives greatly.
I may often get frustrated with their screen-time obsession and chase my kids outside to play, but I truly do believe this world, this i-generation world, is a wonderful world to live in.
Thank you sincerely, Steve, for creating it.
