USC Annenberg Program on Online Communities Director Karen North wrote an Oct. 7 op-ed about Steve Jobs' impact on social media for CNN. North credits Jobs with "the boom in social media" because the iPhone allowed people to use the Internet and interact with each other while they were away from their home computers. "Would Facebook be the mobile phenomenon that it has become without the iPhone making it possible to for us to view content, upload photos and interact from any location at any time? Without the iPhone, would Twitter have become so dominant a communications tool?" North wrote. She said technology was "nerdy" before Jobs designed the tools that enable easy sharing, but now carrying electronics is a cool status symbol. "Indeed, iPhones and now iPads have become fashion accessories, used by people to accessorize their personal images and demonstrate that they are in vogue, popular and connected," North said. Jobs was a true innovator, challenging himself to take leaps in technology, and those leaps created a thriving social media society, she said. Read the article here.