If Gen Z invented tech from scratch: Vibes without memory
People love to sneer that Gen X and boomers are irrelevant to the modern tech industry. Fine — let’s test that. Strip out their contributions. No ARPANET. No Ethernet. No broadband rollouts. No floppy disks. No USB. No WiFi. No cell networks. No Web.
What’s left for Gen Z to “invent” is a tech industry that looks like a dorm room art fair.
No storage means no apps.
No apps means no internet culture.
No internet culture means no industry.
The only platforms are corkboards, zines, and Sharpie doodles.
The analog startup scene
In this alternate history, unicorns don’t ship software. They ship vibes:
- PaperTok — handwritten performances passed around homeroom. Going “viral” means your doodle makes it to another classroom.
- InstaWall — disposable camera selfies pinned to corkboards in coworking spaces. The “filter” is just bad fluorescent lighting.
- VenmoCash — literal envelopes of dollar bills pooled at brunch. No API, just IOUs.
Without storage media, nothing persists. Every “platform” disappears the second the corkboard is trashed or someone spills a latte on the zine.
Mood boards instead of motherboards
Tech isn’t built on vibes. It’s built on ugly, invisible hardware. Floppies. Connectors. Protocols. Gen X and older did that trench work. In this version of history, Gen Z skips it and goes straight to aesthetics.
The result? Their “cloud-native stack” is binders of screenshots stacked on IKEA shelves. A server farm that looks like a dorm bookshelf.
And of course, they still manage to raise $50 million in seed funding. Because VCs can’t resist a founder who says “we’re democratizing vibes at scale” while holding a pastel binder.
Karaoke night with no replay
A Gen Z-only industry has no permanence. No feeds. No timelines. No archives. Just vibes, karaoke nights, and no replay button. The revolution never ships. It evaporates at closing time.
When the corkboard collapses, the whole “platform” goes down. Status page? A handwritten sign taped to the front door that reads pls check back later. Incident response? A round of boba tea to talk about “alignment.”
The inventions Gen Z never gets
Remove the older generations and you also remove:
- ARPANET (Boomers)
- Ethernet (Gen X)
- Dial-up modems (Boomers)
- Broadband rollout (Gen X)
- WiFi (Gen X)
- The floppy disk (Boomers)
- The compact disc (Boomers)
- The USB standard (Gen X)
- The World Wide Web (Gen X)
- The first smartphones (Gen X)
Take those away, and the “Gen Z tech industry” isn’t Silicon Valley. It’s a WeWork corkboard, a stack of zines, and a shoebox full of IOUs.
Will Kelly is a writer, content strategist, and keen observer of the IT industry. Medium is home to his personal writing projects. His professional interests include generative AI, cloud computing, DevOps, and collaboration tools. He has written for startups, Fortune 1000 firms, and leading industry publications, including CIO and TechTarget. Follow him on X: @willkelly. You can also follow him on BlueSky: willkelly.bsky.social.
