Pre-iPhone internet reach was capped to professionals and tech youth

Evidence

Despite these innovations, online culture remained constrained by its distribution. Reading websites still required sitting at a desktop computer, limiting the audience to mostly white-collar professionals and tech-savvy youth. Mobile phones like the BlackBerry gained popularity among business users, while T-Mobile’s Sidekick became a modest hit thanks to celebrity endorsements from Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton. But these devices offered a very limited online experience. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 198

Categorization

• XREF: Contrast with the reader’s theme: the pre-collapse internet was stratified by access, and collapsing that access barrier is what Marx says flattened culture.