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It would be impossible and quite frankly irresponsible of me not to talk about the death of Apple’s co-founder (and until recently, CEO), Steve Jobs. I found out about this at exactly 7:40PM tonight, Wednesday, October 5, 2011 via TIME Magazine’s twitter.

This blog entry will be divided into two parts: the devastating information received and the way it was received.

The Death of Steve Jobs

The History: Steve Jobs has had a long battle with his health. In 2004, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Although this tumor was subsequently removed, he continued to become thin and frail, even without a reccurence of the cancer. In April 2009, he had a liver transplant, causing him to take a medical leave of absence. He returned in the end of 2009, but he left again on medical leave in January of 2011. He maintained his position as CEO with Tim Cook running day-to-day operations. His final resignation came on August 24, 2011, as he could “no longer meet [his] duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO”.

Jobs survived for an extraordinarily long time with pancreatic cancer, which generally ends the lives of it’s victims relatively quickly. However, it is never a pleasant experience when people die. Furthermore, Steve Jobs was a revolutionary inventor. He was the backbone in the creation of Apple and continued to run a tight ship. When he was fired in 1985, stock and ideas plummetted. Apple was at a stand still. He returned in 1996, bringing up sales and getting rid of failing products. It wasn’t until the iPod came out in 2001 that the world was truly rocked by Apple products. Apple changed the way we absorb content. Steve Jobs was the innovator that made it all happen.

It is truly sad that the world is now without Steve Jobs. Yes, it’s true he ruled a tight ship. However, his business changed the world and inspired the value of user experience. I truly believe that UX/UI of the internet is reflective of Apple’s aesthetics.

Twitter: The New News Source

I can proudly say that I was the first person in my twitterfeed to tweet about the death of Steve Jobs after seeing the news from TIME Magazine. Within seconds, the rest of my twitterfeed exploded as other people I followed became aware of the news. The news organizations promised more updates as they became aware of them, linking us to their own resources. In 2011, news is social. We don’t just rely on the TV or newspapers to give us information, but we have instant gratification.

What will this say for news in the future? Is it possible for news to get to us faster? The only way I can think that would be possible is ensuring the entire world is connected, and not just those with affluent privelege to be connected to the internet. That… or are brains will be hardwired to the web.

Twitter and other forms of social media has changed the world. I can’t wait to see what happens next.