Forums / Meme Research

ah, the year 1999. I was a really awful 12 year old and I’m glad YouTube and Twitter didn’t exist back then. But that’s another story for the JFF forums

Anyway, we are missing an entry on the Y2K bug. I know a lot of you young’ns weren’t on the internet when it happened but it’s a huuuge event in internet history. I’m putting together the Open Entry for tonight but in the meantime, let’s get our juices flowing in this thread, ya?

I WAS! I WAS! I’M OLD!!!

I remember people putting “Y2K Safe” stickers on all sorts of electronic devices. And I also remember people freaking out about how all their electronics would stop working, and how the global economy and infrastructure would collapse, etc. I was only 9 at the time, but I do remember hearing about how Usenet groups were spreading theories about doomsday scenarios and how to protect yourself and stuff. I think a large part of it was how to horde supplies etc.

So I’d probably say that Y2K was one of, if not the, first viral events on the internet. I’ll do a bit of editing at some point.

The funny thing was how much of a flop it was. I remember a news report saying that the worst thing that happened was that some cash registers at Shari’s printed December 32nd, 1999 or something stupid.