As you, the author, say, you are old enough to remember Y2K. But, before Y2K, there were hundreds of others. I knew people who thought that what was written about 1984 by Orwell was actually going to come to pass in 1984 (then there are people who seem to be hoping that it will, if thirty years late); every few years the Jehovah's Witness comes up with a new "the world will end" date. The Norse believed in Ragnarök, a war between two different tribes of gods (the Æsir-Vanir War) which would bring about the World's End. Many believed, including Christopher Columbus, that the world would end in 1666 (surely it must have looked like it would from the Londoners' perspectives); Sir Isaac Newton, famous alchemist and occultist, believed it would occur in the 21st century.

Many in Europe expected to see the End of Days in 1000, but the advent of 1001 subsided these fears for a few years. However, there was this monk, if I recall correctly, named Adso who prophecized that the last King of the Franks would usher in the End of Days by putting down his scepter on the Mount of Olives, causing the fears to be revived only a few years later.

The annals of failed Doomsday prophecies goes on and on. Back in the '30s or '40s, Orson Welles broadcasted H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds over the radio. People believed that the alien invasion was actually happening: it was on the radio. In the '90s, on Hallowe'en, a pseudo-news broadcast in London had people believing that poltergeists were actually coming through a portal in this house, not realizing that the whole thing was meant to be a movie. True, they wanted to fool people, but somebody actually killed himself from it.

As you can see from the last paragraph, not only prophecies cause people to fear the worst. Even in the twentieth century - the Age of Reason - people were duped by "entertainment", having developed such a trust for everything they see on TV or hear on the radio or, now a-days, read online. It is in our nature to expect the worst.

It's unlikely. Big claims, however undeserved, often get attention simply because of what they're claiming. Often, you will find who people like attention, and therefore you will find people who claim things greater than they are. It's only probability that there will be people who claim for doomsday.

People are irrational, and despite the lack of evidence, they still give these claims undeserved recognition. It's just like spam, that friend who broadcasts a bbm message because if they don't, their account will get shut down, or people who share photos of hurt children because a doctor promised to help them if they got this many likes, it's all the same. People acting irrationally out of fear.

Absolutely not. People like to make life interesting, I honestly believe that EVERY generation will experience the anticipation that the world may end in their lifetime. And it may, but it probably won't.

As long as the world exists, people will prophesies its cataclysmic destruction...

I put no because i think that doomsday theories probly will go on for as long as the human race is alive, but i do think that after dec. 21st 2012 passes(and if we do all live past that date and nothing happens), then the rumors will calm down for a little while.