What helped spread the Y2K fear was media coverage which were inaccurate, gossip, and even some tech people who were out to make some money by appearing on shows or other places. The large Danish national paper Jyllands-Posten (JP) covered the issue in the years and months leading up to the new millennium as most other countries’ newspapers did – with much sensationalism and little fact. On December 12th, 1999 an article summarized some of the possible dangers: accidental launching of nuclear missiles, Russian nuclear power plants melting down, planes crashing, drinking water being poisoned and power failures resulting in people freezing to death. These possible dangers reached America as many were preparing for the worse whether it be a nuclear meltdown, or missiles and planes falling from the sky. These are brought up alongside other ends when people think of the Y2K bug but there was an upside to this fear.
In 1999 the Software manufacturers won big as they sold more software than years previouse. Needless to say when one talks about computers and software there are the professionals who work with computers. IT experts sold books and other items and made a profit however as people were focused on the new software and consultants hardware manufacturers got the low end of the deal. People in the fear of reverting back to a time of the cavemen helped make wilderness survival camps popular which led to the creation of shows that followed people living off the land. People also spent money on food stockpiles and other supplies that could help them survive for an extensive amount of time.
Sources
http://www.svj.hvu.nl/mediahype/risk4/page9.htm
Y2K is such an interesting topic! It seems to be a historical example of national hysteria resulting from uninformed media sources. This isn't to say that fear of the computer shut down was unjustified, however, it seems that Americans weren't actually informed with the real facts. More so it seems as though word spread through media as well as word of mouth, and many people took the information without questioning the validity of these rumors. Can you think of another time when there was widespread fear about an issue that Americans were uninformed about?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comment above, many people nowadays do not fact check their sources and the internet now allows people to publish any content that they want. It is very interesting that even educated people were affected by the Y2K hysteria the same way that many educated people today can read something fake online and still believe it.
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