It's Time to Let Steve Jobs Go

I can't ever be stupid enough to say that Steve Jobs isn't a modern day icon that played a significant role in providing the world with incredible technological advancements. However, must we continue to read something about him every damn day?

As a tech journalist, I am one of those people that have to stand up and be counted as part of the problem. Seeking out, and subsequently authoring a Jobs story isn't hard to do, and the end result usually equates to a spike in readership. The majority of writers want to be read, and in this beat, writing about Jobs is a surefire way to grab an audience's eyes.

That said, I'm over it.

When Jobs passed away last October, the Internet coverage hit such a high volume, that I was a little surprised that those at Google didn't sue Apple for overwhelming its search engine for a substantial period of time.

World leaders, competitors, celebrities, fellow innovators, and tech journalists lined up to pay homage to the man that helped create some of the most social, yet anti-social tech products to ever exist (iPhone, iPad, and iPod). The tributes made sense then, and arguably still made sense until the end of 2011.

But, here we are now fully entrenched in 2012. Tim Cook is now peddling the big wheel that is Apple, and the company has people peeing themselves with excitement over the prospect of the iPad 3 emerging in the coming months. Yet, amidst all of this, Jobs is still making news.

Columns were buzzing two weeks ago over the fact that Jobs was allegedly working with Neil Young on a new, higher fidelity digital audio service. Then, last week the story about the details of Jobs' FBI profile being released got everyone intrigued, and this week people have been all over the Grammy Award he was awarded posthumously for his contribution to the music industry.

By next week, I'd imagine some story will emerge about how Jobs encountered a grizzly bear in the woods 10 years ago, and escaped its presence by tossing a pair of classic iPods at its face (as if they were ninja stars) blinding the bear, and leaving it concussed.

Maybe a month from now, we will find out that Jobs once considered wearing only white turtlenecks at important events, but gave up on the idea because he didn't believe in the power of stain removal technology.

What I'm getting at here is that there seems to be this scary, continued obsession with Jobs. Sure, some people look at him as the Elvis Presley of the tech world, and will either never accept the fact that he's really gone, or continue to believe that he set the bar so high that no one else should even try to compete.

As a result of this, journalists that either feel that way, or feel as if they need a Jobs story at least once a week (if not more) to appease their readers, are only adding to the problem by continually publishing Jobs related content.

The last time I checked, one of technology's greatest attributes is its ability to continually evolve, and give people insight into what the future may hold. If most people also see it that way, why must we continue to treat Jobs as if he is this God-like figure that we must continually bow at the feet of?

I'm sure he's left a lot of great and fascinating ideas to those that remain at Apple, and that he has left an indelible mark on the lives of so many that he either encountered personally, or influenced indirectly. But seriously, it's time to move on. Let's start looking out for new heroes, and the soon-to-be legendary. These people are certainly out there, and are just waiting for their chance to soak up some of the spotlight.

After all, Jobs was just a man that between great ideas and killer, cutthroat business strategies likely still left the toilet seat up, forgot to bring home milk, and got in trouble for not giving his wife the right answer, at the right time. However, I'm sure the couch he had to sleep on from time-to-time was far more comfortable than the cripplers most dudes have to resort to.