Why Did Everyone Care About Y2K?

While the world collectively held their breath through December 31, 1999, the Y2K hysteria predated the new millennium by decades. Prince was singing about “two thousand, zero zero, party over, oops, out of time” as early as 1982, and preparations for the great unknown of the 2000s intensified throughout the 1990s.

In hindsight, it was a new year like any other. Why were people scared of Y2K? To put it simply, it was the sobering realization that we had permanently crossed the threshold into a computerized world, and the possibility of even a brief widespread technological issue could signal the end times.

To Read more about the Y2K Hysteria, go here:

#y2k #y2kbug #weirdhistory

[itsjustme]

I worked for a bank and loans couldn't be made past 1999 until the programing was fixed.

[Nanno]

I was an IT manager for a large state for y2k. It definitely was a catastrophe averted by a lot of hard work and a lot of overtime before the date change.

[marianparoo]

We had a minor disaster at the library---- books came up as 100 years overdue!!!! No fines were calculated, though.

[robertosorio]

People do not a appreciate what massive effort this was, and how badly things could have gone wrong. Bonus points: Y2K mitigations likely prevented the total collapse of our banking systems, during 9-11 when the towers fell, destroying or cutting off most of the banking data centers. Backup data centers and redundancy implemented for Y2K meant that nearly every bank smoothly switched over to backup data centers, and banking and commerce continued mostly unaffected.

[daveschmarder-]

In 1999 I worked for an industrial electronic parts store. In late 1999 a lady walked in bringing in an old mantle clock. She was worried that Y2K would do something to it. I explained why she had no problem and she could rest assured that her clock would still work.

[qwertyuiopgarth]

That is the problem with good preventative efforts - if they have been well done the result is that 'nothing happens' and everything 'runs smoothly', and then some idiot starts claiming that because 'nothing happened' the preventative efforts were a waste of money.

[pennilesswriter]

About 8 years ago, my coworkers and I were discussing past events. Y2K and 9/11 came up. A 14 year old who was hanging around because of his dad (summer break) was totally confused. We had to explain why and what the fear was about and why there was so much panic linked between the two (ie, why people who lived through both mentioned both). It really felt like the world was trying to end with one thing after another. He at least knew about 9/11, but didn't live through it. Never had I felt so old than in that moment.

[MrSunDevil]

I have been an IT professional for over 30 years and I remember Y2K very well. The consulting company I worked for at the time made more money in 1999 preparing clients for Y2K than they had in the entire 8 years they were in business. While it was a distinct and definite issue, I for one am glad that preparations and workarounds were in place so the “global computing apocalypse” did not happen.

[blackenedwritings]

Y2K on Weird History? Wasn't that just ... oh ...

[triadmad]

I was the "computer guy" at the survey/engineering company I worked for, because I was the first guy in the office to replace a hard drive or add memory to a computer several years before. Microsoft put out a Y2k patch that I installed on all the computers that could have been affected.

[Nozferatu]

I work in IT with databases, and I still deal with weird Band-Aid fixes for Y2K in some legacy systems.

[MikeHarris]

Prison doors in Canada failed? Did the inmates just shut the door themselves and say "Surry!"

[Skummeh]

I worked at a data center during this time period and the only thing that broke was our electronic door system. The date rolled back to 1900 so all of our door access codes were created "in the future" and weren't accepted. Fortunately we had physical key backups. We put all the codes back in fresh and went about our business. None of the servers or applications we used had any issues after applying any fixes that the vendors provided. This limited impact was thanks to the massive effort put in by many to ensure continued operation of systems worldwide.

[sarahcoleman]

My father was working (what is now called IT) in a major international corporation in 1999. I remember him telling me that the problem wasn't going to be the end of the world, but it was important to update a lot of computers. He was extremely stressed out and working overtime to get all the computers changed, but his team actually got everything done about a week before New Years, so, thankfully, the world still has baby powder.

[EricGranata]

On New Year’s Eve 1999, as family and extended family were watching the ball drop on TV, champagne in hand, I was in the garage at the breaker box waiting for the countdown to end. The reaction was pretty funny.

[kath]

My hubby made a killing doing "Y2K Compliance" service on computers. He was freelance at the time, so it was a boom for us. We went out for new years, but made sure to be home by midnight, just in case of any weirdness. 😊

[kirbymarchbarcena]

I was wondering why no one activated their Vault-Tec subscriptions at that time

[Makoto]

I remember Y2k. I was alittle over 10 when the hysteria around that happening when the clock struck midnight at 2000. What made it slightly scary was i remember legit news stations covering it like it might actually happen.

I wasn't so scared as much as confused. Also happy my parents didn't buy into it and wasted money on survival kit nonsense or something. lol

[NewMessage]

* LaBamba voice *
"🎶In the year two thousand.... In the year two

[kaledmasterme]

Hey Weird History, are we gonna get more Timeline?