Y2k The Millenium Bug Essay, Research Paper

Many believe that the Millenium Bug is bound to affect everybody’s life personally or economically. The possibility that many computer systems will experience, somewhat, an inability to function properly as the year 2000 approaches, is a growing concern for most companies and individuals. The misrepresentation of the two-character year in data fields could cause anything from partial disruptions to full, catastrophic failures. The people speculated to encounter Y2K could vary from a wide range of business owners to simply credit card holders. Small Business Owners Ignore Y2K, Study Shows, an article written by Hilary Stout from the Wall Street Journal states that many of the business owners are simply evading the problem. Many of them believe that the hassle to find and fix it is worse than the problem itself. The resent study showed that a third of the small businesses have not even assessed the damage that could result. Another five percent of these businesses were not even familiar with presence of the possible hazard. For other companies that are vulnerable to the Y2K bug a restructure of their computer systems are a not a priority. However, another third of the small business community has approached the problem successfully and another nineteen percent have planned to go up against the millenium bug. The first time I read about Y2K I was reluctant to believe that we do not know the amount of damage this computer glitch could create. Just economically speaking it could cause a stock market crash or small businesses not being able to operate to bank ATM machines no functioning properly, all causing loses of thousands of dollars and customers. Other industries will also be affected like the air and land transportation since they are dependent on computer systems for nearly every task involved to function properly. Unfortunately, the modern society of today has grown very dependent of computers, which make it seem as though very few tasks were done by human beings. I recently realized this when one of the telecommunication satellites transmitting pager messages from one pager to another was damaged. My father who is a gynecologist could not be reached for emergencies, and my brother in-law could not be contacted to make important financial decisions for his small company. While one lost patients the other lost money. Now if this can happen to individuals in a small case scenario I can not picture the largest companies in the nation and the world having computer problems. This is why I believe that companies and individuals need to be aware of the dangers, and work as a community because if one domino falls the rest follow. Another solution to the millenium bug would be that as humans we reflect on what will happen and if we have given technology a proper role in our culture.