( CNN ) -- Last night my youngest son , fresh out of college , and I got into a heated debate over who affected our culture more : Bob Dylan or Steve Jobs . On the surface this was the kind of crazy , even absurd , argument that families often get into . But dig deeper , and it was about how generations define themselves : through the lyrics of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century or the objects of one the greatest visionaries of the century , through resistance to an unpopular war and opposition to unjust social practices or through the use of products that that have changed how we work , play and communicate with each other . Writing on my MacBook , with an iPhone in my pocket and an iPad on the table next to me , it is easy to argue that Jobs ' achievement was not only that he reimagined how technology could be used but that he redefined how it could look . Can anyone really think anymore of working on a personal computer that does not have a brushed and machined aluminum casing or that is not sleek and thin , perfectly balanced , not so light as to be insignificant nor too heavy as to be not genuinely portable ? Can anyone accept an awkward interface whose icons do n't know how to dance gracefully to a downloaded tune suggested by Genius ? Jobs ' insistence on objects whose look paralleled their use â€ ” not in the modernist sense of form following function but in his commitment to making devices that looked as good as they functioned -- made owning an Apple a deeply personal statement . And his relentless commitment to getting the details right , the shape of a screen , for instance , or the appearance and click of a keyboard , the size and location of the track pad , or something as simple as an on/off switch or a magnetic power cord connection , set a standard that every competitor has tried to match . Apple 's elegance and refinement of technology can , of course , be seen simply as a clever marketing strategy , a means of differentiating itself in a crowded marketplace . But despite the company 's rigid protection of its brand , the way Apple treats the design of its products transcends any simple notion of branding . Jobs realized that the digital generation not only wanted access to an endless array of information and entertainment , it wanted it delivered in a way that projected the user 's sense of self ; that personal style mattered as much as function . Apple 's ability to find a way to consistently make its products look and act better than similar products while appealing to individuals of every age and walk of life â€ ” kids as well as grandparents , hipsters as well as bankers â€ ” and from almost every corner of the planet is about a brand going viral and becoming a cultural phenomenon . And that gets us back to Dylan , whose music shaped and defined a generation here and abroad . In a very different way , and with a very different meaning but with at least as great an impact , Apple has become an almost universal sign of belonging to a connected and open world that is deeply curious and innovative and is youthful in spirit . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Glenn D. Lowry .
Glenn Lowry says Steve Jobs , like Bob Dylan , is icon who helps generation define itself . He says it 's hard to imagine working on computer without production values of an Apple . He says Jobs insisted on products that worked and looked good ; made personal statement . Lowry : " I think the reason he was so successful at what he did was because his product line had a certain quality about them...