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Originally Posted by Exirus
I didn't really have much internet access around Y2K.. But was it as big as this 2012 thing?
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It's a little early yet to say how far 2012 silliness will go, but Y2K scares were general news items, so yes, I'd say it was a big thing as scares go. There were real computer issues, but they were badly misrepresented by the news media (there were even stories that referred to Y2K programming issues as a "computer virus"
). Then there were the religious groups that latched onto it as a good "end of the world" argument. And finally, there was a bit of a positive feedback loop: Politicians ordered that extreme measures be taken (with programmers on staff and emergency centers staffed on New Year's Eve) so that they could say they were doing everything possible if the least little bug turned up in some program or other . . . and the fact that they did such things were taken as evidence there were serious problems that hadn't been resolved by the news media, which in turn fueled even more extreme special preparation.
There isn't anything like that for 2012. I don't think the Doom Pushers will get very far in the popular news media with the "galactic alignment" silliness, and Mayan beliefs don't have the following compared to Christian Millenialists. You'll see the occasional news story, and the various internet sites, but that's it.