Should Steve Jobs Be Time’s Person of the Year?


Steve Jobs on Time Magazine in 2010

No one in history has ever been named Time Magazine‘s “Person of the Year” after they died, but Steve Jobs could very well be the first. Is it an honor he deserves?

Steve Jobs on Time Magazine in 2010

A special nominating committee consisting of public figures like actor Jesse Eisenberg, celebrity chef Mario Batali, comedian Seth Meyers, and others, recently convened to name nominees for Time‘s annual Person of the Year selection. (The committee doesn’t decide who wins. The magazine’s editors do. But the winner comes from their pool of nominations, and committee members can passionately make a case for those they nominate.) NBC’s Brian Williams nominated Jobs with a convincing speech about the extent that Jobs’ influence can be felt all throughout modern society. You can see part of his speech in the video above.

Jobs has been on the cover of Time Magazine eight times — the most recent immediately following his passing — but never as its Person of the Year. It’s not hyperbole to say that he was directly responsible for the personal computer industry. But the question remains: Should Time break with tradition and name someone Person of the Year postmortem?

Others nominated for the honor include the ringleaders of the “Occupy” movement; and Tunisian vendor Mohammed Bouazizi, whose immolation last year kicked off the Arab Spring movement. Last year’s honoree was Facebook inventor Mark Zuckerburg.


Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

5 Comments

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  1. Visionaries like Steve Jobs reveal the true secret to the Universe in that nothing is impossible with time, perseverance, and positive visualization. Such a passion for furthering human communication inspires. His legacy will survive generations with names like Edison, Tesla as the greatest inventors and visionaries of all time. As an artist, I draw from these inspirations and advancements in my work and you may enjoy my recent portrait of Mr. Jobs, now In Memoriam at https://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/08/end-of-era-steve-jobs.html

  2. Years ago, after releasing the Apple II, he thought he would be chosen and was not. Instead, the computer itself was chosen. While he may not have really deserved it then, he certainly does now.

  3. Without Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) we would have:
    No iProducts
    No over expensive laptops

    Without Dennis Ritchie (September 9, 1941 – October 12, 2011) we would have:
    No Windows
    No Unix
    No C
    No Programs
    A large setback in computing
    No Generic-text Languages.
    We would all read in Binary..

    They died in the same year and the same month but it seems only few notice the death of Dennis Ritchie compared to Steve Jobs.