Random Reasons Why Did Everyone Care So Much About Y2K (12 items)

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  (#11) IT Specialists Were Finally Taken Seriously

  The potential profit disaster of the Millennium Bug was the galvanizing force that frightened CIOs into deferring to their in-house IT specialists and third-party vendors alike. Up until this point, the system administrators and programmers were cogs that kept the wheels of the newly online business world turning, but now they were the only ones with the knowledge to stop a potential IT disaster in its tracks. They took full advantage.

  The Millennium Bug’s threat to any company’s bottom line was greater than whatever the IT workers asked for, so they were effectively given carte blanche to take whatever action necessary. Before Y2K, updating the computer equipment seemed like an unnecessary extra cost, meaning that lots of software was already grossly outdated even prior to the Y2K fiasco. The obvious benefits resulting from the modernization before and after Y2K were monumental for the IT field.
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  (#10) Ultimately Everything Was Fine, But Only Because Of Everyone's Hard Work

  After the unceremonious beginning of the year 2000, revelers and preppers alike awoke in a world that was practically the same as the day before. The entire Y2K fiasco quickly faded into memory and was sometimes used as a punchline about overly ambitious doomsday thinking. But was it really so overblown?

   The Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem was formally disbanded in February 2000. The chairman, Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, emphasized the level of hidden work that went into keeping all of the government's technological elements safe and updated as the millennium approached.

  Seemingly few issues arose in the aftermath of Y2K aside from a handful of insurance and credit card issues, which were quickly resolved. While the consequences seem comparatively minor, Bennett stated that these events “are not the triggering events that would cascade into each other. [This] has always been the best case scenario."

  In response to the public undermining of the committee and the ICC’s work, the Senate Special Committee report stated that across the globe, there were many issues larger than those experienced stateside.

  For perspective, prison doors failed in Canada, power plants malfunctioned in Eastern Europe, dialysis machines failed in East Africa and Southeast Asia, ATMs broke down in several regions, and a whopping 15% of small businesses in France reported technology issues related to Y2K. In the grand scheme, a great deal of suffering was avoided in the US due to these organizations' diligence.
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  (#8) People Prepared For The Impending Low-Techness

  The typically underground prepper community had their time in the spotlight during the months leading up to Y2K - their paranoia and hyper-vigilance values briefly went mainstream. Throughout 1999, survivalist classes proliferated, and online prepper communities were built.

  While stockpiling toilet paper, water, and nonperishable food was commonplace for preppers, some took it one step further and prepared for a life sans technology. In Michael Hyatt’s The Millennium Bug: How to Survive the Coming Chaos, he urged citizens to learn how to “distinguish edible plants from those that are [dangerous]... [prepare] a cow [for food]... set a broken bone, pull a tooth, and deliver a baby.” Other tips included purchasing a side arm and learning how to use it.

  Some businesses and institutions also embraced the low-tech movement. Amish businesses really cleaned up, as few to none of their hardware devices required electricity. Meanwhile, a hospital in Colorado allegedly gave patients a whistle to call for the nurse in case the call buttons stopped working.

  While this may have been a watershed moment for the survivalist movement, the level of mass engagement with prepper logic was widely overblown by the media - most people didn’t give Y2K prep that much thought.
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  (#1) People Thought Software Relying On Two-Digit Dates Would Suddenly Malfunction When The Date Changed To '00'

  While many theories were promulgated about the impending end of the world, the most salient concerned the “Millennium Bug,” which would theoretically devastate all computers when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2000.

  For the first 40 years or so of computer programming, years were typically denoted with two digits - 98 for 1998, 99 for 1999. This shorthand seemed logical at the time, as these programmers likely didn't expect the immense staying power of their archaic machines. 

  The fears surrounding the Millennium Bug were not completely unfounded. The Social Security Administration, one of the organizations that spent the most time and money preparing for the new year, uses date calculations in order to determine eligibility for benefits. To do so, the computers subtract the birthday of a potential benefit recipient from the current year. This works fine subtracting a 65-year-old’s birth year of (19)34 from 99, but the same 65-year-old would suddenly lose their eligibility when they turned -34 on New Year's Day. 

  The potential disaster at the Social Security Administration was just one of many examples of this fear, which only grew due to the increasingly widespread hysteria.
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  (#6) New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson Warned People That Storing Gasoline In Their Homes Was Far More Dangerous Than Y2K

  Energy secretary and former governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson cautioned motorists against stockpiling gasoline before Y2K. There were two major issues with the idea: safety and the possibility of a shortage. In a press release published the week before New Year's Day, Richardson stated, "If you have half a tank, you're good to go. There's no need to hoard gasoline. Storing it in your house is not a good idea, way more dangerous than any 'millennium bug.'"

  In addition to the obvious fire risk on a holiday known for drunkenness and fireworks, the mass purchase of gasoline would create the very shortage that consumers were afraid of. Ultimately, most appeared to heed his warning, and the gas prices and stock did not stray far from their usual numbers. 
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  (#7) Airlines Scaled Back Their Flights For December 31 Following Low Ticket Sales

  While the FAA had the foresight to begin dealing with the potential computer disaster years before the clock struck midnight on Y2K, consumers were still skittish about flying that evening. In preparation for the unexpected, the Transportation Department set up bases at the command centers for 10 commercial airlines, Amtrak, and major freight railways.

  On any other Friday, as many as 5,000 to 7,000 aircrafts take to the sky. New Year's Eve has always been a low-demand day to fly, but logged flights were reduced as much as 25% on December 31, 1999.

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