Science & Tech Quote by Steve Case

There is a self-interested candor hiding inside Steve Case's concern for the digitally dispossessed. As AOL's co-founder, Case helped turn the Internet from a nerd-side utility into a mass-market product; his nostalgia for the moment "it was becoming a mainstream phenomenon" is also a reminder that companies like his were the on-ramp. The line works because it does two jobs at once: it frames the Internet as inevitable progress, and it frames exclusion as an avoidable policy failure rather than a feature of the market.

The repetition of "clear" is rhetorical pressure. It implies that the warning signs were obvious, and that anyone who didn't act is culpable. That is a neat bit of narrative control: the digital divide becomes less a consequence of corporate consolidation or uneven investment and more a civic problem awaiting a civic-minded solution. "Left out" suggests social isolation; "left behind" invokes economic doom. Case isn't just talking about access to a browser; he's talking about who gets to participate in the next labor market, the next education system, the next public square.

Context matters. This is a post-dotcom-bubble, pre-smartphone way of thinking: broadband gaps, computer ownership, basic connectivity. It's also a classic philanthropist-capitalist bridge position: build the future, then warn about its collateral damage. The subtext is reassurance: the system can keep innovating without apology, as long as we bolt on inclusion after the fact.