That 1999 article claiming the internet would collapse by 2002 still cracks me up

I found a dusty old magazine in my dad's garage last month with an interview where some expert said online shopping would never catch on because people need to touch things before buying... I run my pest control business now and 60% of my supplies come from Amazon. Has anyone else run into predictions that aged this badly?

2 comments

2 Comments

richardharris1d ago

@faith_perez I totally get what you mean about the printed emails thing... it's like people back then couldn't imagine a world where everything just worked online. That whole era of predictions always seemed to miss the bigger pattern though, how fast regular people actually adapt when something saves them time or money. My brother still laughs about the guy who said nobody would trust credit cards on websites, and now look at us paying for coffee with our phones. It's funny how we always assume the future will look just like today but with shinier gadgets, never realizing the simple stuff changes the most.

faith_perez1d ago

oh man, my uncle still brings up that time a TV expert said the internet was just a fad for nerds and would die out by 2000. i mean, he literally printed out emails so he could read them on paper.

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