"These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I'm not downplaying that"
About this Quote
Jobs is doing something he rarely bothered with in product-keynote mode: admitting that technology is not just shiny hardware or lifestyle branding, but infrastructure for survival. The opening verbs - "make life easier", "let us touch people" - sound like standard Silicon Valley uplift until he immediately sharpens the stakes with a child "with a birth defect". That turn matters. It yanks the conversation out of convenience and into contingency, where the value of connection is measured in nights slept, diagnoses understood, treatments found.
The specificity is also strategic. By choosing support groups, medical information, and "the latest experimental drugs", Jobs frames networks as accelerants of agency. The subtext is a rebuttal to the era's rising suspicion that screens isolate, distract, and cheapen relationships. He's conceding the critique without surrendering the argument: yes, tech can be shallow, but it can also be the difference between panic and a plan. It is a moral counterweight to the charge that consumer technology is frivolous.
That final line - "I'm not downplaying that" - is a rhetorical prebuttal, a CEO's version of "I hear you". It telegraphs that he's about to pivot to a harder truth, likely about limits, tradeoffs, or the danger of mistaking connection for meaning. Coming from Jobs, the context is especially loaded: a man whose products re-scripted daily life insisting that the most profound use case isn't productivity, it's people trying to get through something.
The specificity is also strategic. By choosing support groups, medical information, and "the latest experimental drugs", Jobs frames networks as accelerants of agency. The subtext is a rebuttal to the era's rising suspicion that screens isolate, distract, and cheapen relationships. He's conceding the critique without surrendering the argument: yes, tech can be shallow, but it can also be the difference between panic and a plan. It is a moral counterweight to the charge that consumer technology is frivolous.
That final line - "I'm not downplaying that" - is a rhetorical prebuttal, a CEO's version of "I hear you". It telegraphs that he's about to pivot to a harder truth, likely about limits, tradeoffs, or the danger of mistaking connection for meaning. Coming from Jobs, the context is especially loaded: a man whose products re-scripted daily life insisting that the most profound use case isn't productivity, it's people trying to get through something.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
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