There seems to be a growing sense of unease circulating on social media, particularly Twitter, that something terrible is about to happen. Not something specific, necessarily, but rather some vague, ominous event that could fundamentally disrupt society as we know it.
I remain skeptical.
To be clear, I do think there are legitimate reasons to worry about the immediate future. The 2026 midterm elections, for example, could become a flashpoint for political instability. Given Donald Trump’s history of challenging election results and his willingness to test the boundaries of established democratic norms, the possibility of election interference or some other form of political disruption cannot simply be dismissed.
But that is a specific, identifiable concern. It is quite different from the increasingly widespread suggestion that some mysterious catastrophe is lurking just over the horizon.
And, frankly, much of that chatter strikes me as nonsense.
I remember a similar atmosphere of collective anxiety several years ago, when footage circulated of a particularly bizarre and seemingly unprovoked violent attack. The incident was so disturbing, and the perpetrator’s behavior so inexplicable, that it briefly inspired an almost surreal line of speculation. I even caught myself entertaining the absurd possibility that perhaps zombies were real after all.
Of course, they weren’t. But the episode demonstrated something interesting about how people respond to disturbing information, particularly when it spreads rapidly through social media. An isolated incident can become evidence of a much larger phenomenon, even when there is little reason to believe the two are connected.
I wonder whether something similar is happening now, only on a considerably larger scale.
Reports circulating online suggest that the British government has been encouraging citizens to stockpile essential supplies in anticipation of potential emergencies. There have also been claims that the American military is making preparations to ensure that installations have sufficient emergency provisions.
Whether these reports accurately describe unusual preparations, routine contingency planning, or simply exaggerated interpretations of ordinary government advice remains an important question. Governments and military organizations prepare for emergencies all the time. That is, after all, part of their responsibility.
Nevertheless, when such reports circulate in an atmosphere already saturated with anxiety, they can take on a significance far beyond what the underlying facts justify.
Compounding the situation is what some commentators have dubbed “Black October,” a period of heightened concern about cybersecurity vulnerabilities, increasingly capable AI-powered hacking tools, and the possibility of widespread disruptions to critical digital infrastructure.
There are legitimate issues here. Modern civilization depends on interconnected computer systems to an extraordinary degree. Banking, transportation, electrical grids, communications, and countless other essential services rely on technology that is both remarkably sophisticated and potentially vulnerable.
The emergence of increasingly autonomous AI systems introduces additional uncertainty into this already complicated picture. The prospect of malicious actors using AI to discover and exploit software vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed is not something to dismiss lightly.
But acknowledging these risks is not the same thing as predicting the imminent collapse of civilization.
Indeed, I suspect that much of the present atmosphere reflects a familiar psychological tendency: when several unsettling developments occur at approximately the same time, people begin looking for a unifying explanation. Political uncertainty, cybersecurity incidents, military preparations, and government emergency advisories gradually merge into a single, ominous narrative.
Before long, the question ceases to be whether something bad might happen and becomes an assumption that something bad will happen.
Social media only intensifies this process. Algorithms reward emotionally compelling content, and few things attract attention more reliably than the suggestion that powerful institutions know something terrible that ordinary citizens have yet to discover. Speculation gets repeated, repetition creates familiarity, and familiarity begins to resemble confirmation.
None of this means that people should ignore genuine threats. Keeping some emergency supplies on hand, having contingency plans, and maintaining a reasonable degree of preparedness are perfectly sensible precautions. They are sensible whether civilization is about to collapse or not.
What concerns me is the apparent transformation of uncertainty into a generalized expectation of catastrophe.
There is a difference between being prepared for an emergency and living as though an emergency is inevitable.
Still, I confess that all this apocalyptic speculation occasionally gets me thinking about what I would actually do if civilization collapsed.
I have often joked that, in such a scenario, I would probably end up at one of two extremes: either I would be among the very first people to die, or I would somehow become one of the people instrumental in rebuilding civilization.
There would apparently be no middle ground for me. Either an embarrassingly brief appearance in the opening scenes of the apocalypse or a starring role in the reconstruction of human society.
I suppose that’s a rather grandiose way of looking at things, but at least it offers a little comic relief from the relentless atmosphere of impending doom.
Ultimately, I think we would all benefit from distinguishing between credible warnings, prudent preparations, and the tendency of the Internet to turn every disturbing development into evidence that the end is near.
The world is an uncertain place. It always has been. And there are certainly enough genuine problems confronting us without inventing additional catastrophes to worry about.
Perhaps something genuinely terrible is about to happen. I certainly can’t rule it out.
But until there is compelling evidence to suggest otherwise, I remain unconvinced that the end of civilization is just around the corner.
Then again, if the zombies actually do show up, I reserve the right to change my mind.
