While on Google Scholar I was looking for an article about the impact of the iPhone, Siri, or Apple Products. Instead I found an extract of a 1996 Wired Interview with Steve Jobs titled, “Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing,” completed by Gary Wolf. This interview shocked me with a few of the quotes from Jobs himself and the opinion of how technology was going to have an impact. But, it is important to note that this interview was held and published before the launch of major social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.
While reading this article I thought about Steve Jobs recent death in October of 2011 and how he has impact the Apple Company and the production of their products. However, while reading this article is seems that Steven Jobs did not feel that technology was going to have that much of an impact on individuals, society, and education. I beg to differ because I feel as if technology has had a huge impact on all three of those aspects.
The interview is from about 16 years ago so obvious a lot has changed. I thought some interesting points that Jobs made were about education and one of them was, “What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent.” Is it possible to agree with this statement?
I am not really sure because in recent years technology has shown huge impacts and some technology involving Apple products. On the other hand I see other side of this statement where Jobs is saying no matter how much technology is in the classroom it won’t make an impact if there isn’t a good teacher in that classroom.
Overall, at the time of this interview it seems as if Jobs did not yet realize the impact technology and the company of Apple would have on the world, technology, and the Internet. Jobs is quoted as saying, “People are thinking less than they used to..So, I don’t see most people using the Web to get more information. We’re already in information overload.”
This statement I do not agree with because I don’t know a lot of people who don’t turn to the internet for information. This article was published before the laugh of social networking websites, (MySpace: August, 2003; Facebook: February, 2004; Twitter: March, 2006) where people find out more about the news and weather before turning to the News.
A final quote from Jobs that really struck me was, “Historical precedent shows that we can turn out amazing human beings without technology.” This is totally true. Individuals survived without technology and we certainly don’t realize how much we have become addicted or inept without it.
Sources: 2006 Interview with Steve Jobs by Gary Wolf
Writing, Research, & Technology 