No, it was the people. Early internet users demographics was a result of extreme selection. Companies did exist back then.

Companies existed of course, but they provided the building blocks of the internet and were not directly concerned with the processing of our data.

This is true. The big turning point was the release of the iPhone, a device that allowed people who didn't know what a computer was to access the internet.

I'd also call out Eternal September in 1993, when AOL made it easy for anyone with a computer to connect online. This permanently changed the composition of the internet, and paved the way for the social networks that would later come to dominance after the iPhone was released.

Why iphone? We had internet on mobile phones before that point.

But I agree with idea that internet became dumber with more people in.

> Why iphone? We had internet on mobile phones before that point.

Certainly not in any way that mattered, and I say this as someone who spent the middle part of my career specifically on mobile.

I mean, sure, there was stuff like WAP, and some other niche phones that could (very, very clunkily) display full HTML. But the launch of the iPhone is what first brought the mobile Internet to the masses (and pretty much all smartphones after the iPhone aped the basic design), and most importantly, was the beginning of the change where websites started even giving a shit about mobile clients ("Mobile first" design and all that).

I think mostly just the iPhone exploded it, and also made a lot of things much more low effort. Like take for example people constantly posting photos of themselves and food and what have you on social media - pre iPhone high quality photos required a separate camera and a computer in order to upload onto social media. Post iPhone you could do it all from one device.

Barriers to entry that revolve around level of interest are ok.