In the time of 1999 and 2000, people were afraid of a coming apocalypse. The reason for this was partly because of the hysteria behind the millennium bug and some people's religion.
The general public really was not informed on how computers worked, creating more mystery behind what could happen when the clock struck midnight for the new year. There was a lot of overhype and hysteria behind it, conspiracy theories rose everywhere. One theory, in particular, stood out. It was created by tech-hating extremely traditional religious groups. It was that on January 1st, 2000, all computers and technology, including electric power for homes, water supply, everything and anything that had the slightest connection to innovation, would shut down. Many religious people made parallels to quotes from the book of Revelations in the bible, that talked about exactly what people would see happen before and during the apocalypse. Religious leaders encouraged their followers to save up and create a place to hide from this apocalypse. The fear created by people was all made up and used to control groups of people. Some families even bought new houses in isolated areas to avoid the apocalypse, however when January 1st arrived, all of their money spent was wasted.
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In the time of 1999 and 2000, people were afraid of a coming apocalypse. The reason for this was partly because of the hysteria behind the ...
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My mom told me a bit about the insane paranoia that some people had during this time. A lot of the people around her didn't seem to think anything major would happen, probably because she was in a rural area that wasn't as technologically integrated as the major cities. Many people had some pretty huge "end of the world" parties that were supposed to be something like their farewell party to the technology that they had become so dependent on.
ReplyDeleteIf I were living during this time, I would have definitely been scared just as most other people around. From this thought of the end of technology and the influence of others around, I'd believe that there'd be an apocalypse. Although it may seems stupid now, people did not have the knowledge we all have today.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I had never heard of till we learned about it in class. I never would ever think that computer would cause such as problem for people's lives just over a little bug in a lot of computers. You talked about how many people isolated themselves and their money went to waste. Its funny how people actually believed the world was ending.
ReplyDeleteThis was interesting to me and I wonder if people would feel the same way if the end of the millennium was taking place in the next few years. People nowadays know much more about computers and technology, and this technology is an important part of our lives. However, I think there would still be some people who are paranoid, but the majority wouldn't believe in the apocalypse.
ReplyDeleteyou are right in that people REALLY were not informed in computers and assumed a crash in some technology would end the world. Of course, there was a threat of some crashes and malfunctions, but its improbable to assume the ENd of the entire world due to a little error.
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