The Steve Jobs Effect: Has Apple Changed Your Life? [Poll]

As word of Steve Job's death spread across the Web on Oct. 5, many of us sat back and realized we were following the news of the Apple founder's passing... on an Apple product.

With each new release, the founder of Apple unveiled products that changed the way we live. Even if you're not a Mac convert, it's likely you have interacted, and been wowed, by an iPad, iPod or iPhone at some point. Even the most dogged PC supporters have iTunes downloaded on their computers.

As Washington Post columnist Hank Stuever wrote Wednesday night:

"What happened with Jobs and Apple over the past decade is one of the rare participatory phenomena of our disconnected and no-longer-common culture. It was as if this generation’s defining event took place in a shopping plaza and then up in the “cloud,” and this time everyone (that is, everyone who could afford Apple products) got to go to Woodstock."

It's rare to go into , or any of our other area coffee shops, and not see the room aglow with that iconic Apple symbol — including from the MacBook Pro that's used to run JohnstonPatch.

And how many times do you think the staff at has to tell students to put their iPods away?

As Stuever continued in his Post column: "Now your kids won’t glance up from their iPhones. They’ll never need to."

As the world continues to reflect on the loss of Steve Jobs today, we're curious to learn more about the local impact of the Apple founder. Take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments section below.