[ta1243]

There's a perception that y2k was overblown because we spent tons of money and didn't have the problems that were suggested in the media

Of course the fact that the problems were overhyped, but importantly FIXED by all that money, doesn't come into it, it was a cry-wolf situation.

[EnigmaFlare]

The media wasn't telling us that the problems were getting fixed though. It kept on hyping the doomsday in whatever way it could. We were supposed to wake up in 2000 to find our fridge door open and melted ice all over the floor. Why? Fridges didn't have clocks that told them to turn themselves off, or clocks at all.

[bdw5204]

That anybody believed the media's claim that refrigerators had computers in them in the 1990s seems like a case of the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect[0]. Smart refrigerators didn't even exist until LG released one in June 2000 that was a commercial failure[1].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnes... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_refrigerator#History

[EnigmaFlare]

I remember the news telling us that all sorts of unexpected devices had computers in them these days and computer=Y2K bug risk. Microwaves certainly did so fridges would be an easy leap to make.