Y2K

I think most people will now agree that Y2K was overblown by the media. There was a grain of truth to the concerns. A lot of computer software was not designed to properly recognize the year 2000. There are a lot of problems that could theoretically happen as a result. What the media reported was an over-the-top worst-case scenario.


Most people should have had no problems seeing the media's exaggerations. We were essentially being told that most computers would fail except those that controlled nuclear weapons. As for nuclear weapons, the media made it sound as though computers misunderstanding the date would activate everything required to launch those weapons. It was a completely unrealistic scenario.

I can understand some computers crashing. Software could hit a date value that it couldn't handle. This was mostly a theoretical possibility with older computers, especially poorly designed custom software. Most software had actually already addressed the most significant problems. Older computers frequently rolled over dates. Instead of crashing, they were more likely to produce the wrong date.

I always felt the biggest problem would involve financial software such as billing programs. If you roll over the date, you could have some period from 1999-1900. Most noteworthy software had addressed problems in plenty of time, minimizing the potential problems.

The media went overboard on Y2K and presented a doomsday scenario. It's a classic example of the media's attempts to scare people into watching. Instead of getting facts presented in a neutral manner, the media proved its corruption. They don't want to inform. They want viewers to tune on so they can get higher ratings. Higher ratings means more advertising revenues. That's what for-profit media wants. It's also why I don't trust the media.