What does the blockchain look like...?

So this question got asked of me recently, not in the same words but along those lines and I wanted to see if anybody can explain this to me.

Most witnesses probably use cloud servers, so I'm not sure who exactly has the answer, but the question is, how exactly do you access what we could call the "back-end", (sounds cheeky) if you're not using an application designed for us non-developers... Are there programs used on laptops for accessing the data on a blockchain? Or can only a server be used? Could anybody actually show me an example of what it looks like? Is it that you only see it by asking it questions? (Like pull the most recently paid out posts above x amount etc)

I'm sure this sounds silly to some, but I couldn't answer without asking people who actually use whatever it is that's used to see the data without a website or app already designed for pulling it... Feels sorta like a chicken or the egg question when I try to figure it out... 🙈