Could it be? The implosion of the Internet?

I was having a conversation the other day with a man, a Baby Boomer approaching retirement, and a woman, a Millennial who was about 30 years old, when I was asked about the status of the newspaper business.

In less than a minute the young woman proved to me that the Internet is killing newspapers faster than I feared.

The Boomer, making a comment that I’ve probably heard a thousand times, said: “I want to hold a newspaper in my hands. I like the feel of it.”

The Millennial responded: “I don’t know anyone that reads a newspaper.”

When the Boomer began complaining about his favorite paper’s three-days-a-week delivery, the woman interrupted: “You get a newspaper delivered to your house? I didn’t think anybody does that anymore.”

Then, as the banter continued, she revealed the back story to this generational divide.

“Oh, I don’t read the news online, except maybe some headlines that pop up on Yahoo,” she explained.

There lies the reason why online news sites may never make a profit. But with the rapid decline in quantity and quality among nearly all financially strapped newspapers, perhaps the print products (the “dead tree editions,” as the youngsters call them) will fade away.

Unless, of course, the Internet implodes.

Most who are fully plugged in digitally would consider that a preposterous notion. But I’m not so sure.

Could it be that the lack of privacy and the dangers of putting personal information where its accessible by online hackers will become so immense that the entire network will come tumbling down?

After all, in cyberspace the crooks seem to be several paces ahead of the cops – and gaining ground.

If hackers can nearly bring a corporation as large as Sony Pictures to its knees, I wonder where this all ends. People logically avoid areas where terrorists roam so how long will it take before they steer clear of the virtual landscape where cyberterrorists are in control?

In 2014, we saw an explosion of computer hacking that certainly could lead to all-out cyberwars targeting every aspect of our lives.

Consider some of the headlines of the past 12 months:

J.P. Morgan Chase, one of the largest banks in the world, a company that spent a reported $250 million on cybersecurity, was hacked. The world’s main online shopping platform, eBay, saw the personal information of its entire 145 million customer base stolen by hackers. On what might be the biggest gaming day of the year, a hacker group called Lizard Squad disrupted service for users of PlayStation Network and Xbox Live on Christmas.

High-tech giant Apple suffered an embarrassing breach when nude photos of movie stars were stolen from the iCloud. A hacker group proudly proclaimed that they are sharing 13,000 stolen passwords for the Amazon and Walmart sites. A Russian-based hacking ring devised a way to intercept live feeds from webcams and broadcast them online around the world.

As for Sony’s debacle, with theater chains refusing to show “The Interview” after the film brought threats of terrorism -- apparently the result of a massive hack arranged by the North Koreans -- the company may lose $75 million. But their computer networks were so thoroughly comprised that some estimates indicate that fixing the IT mess will cost more than the lost revenue from the film.

If Apple and eBay and JP Morgan remain vulnerable, how many more sinister steps need be taken before no place on the Internet is safe? Perhaps deception is the next corporate move that chips away at the Internet’s credibility. In the case of eBay, the company waited two weeks to reveal the fraud.

Several retail store chains took a hit to their reputations when their customers’ personal information was stolen. One of the Internet’s greatest inventions, Wikipedia, endured so many embarrassing hacks or insertions of deliberately false information that most computer-users now unfairly consider the site wholly unreliable.

Of course, the Internet remains a menacing place in other obvious ways – thieves, perverts and the mentally deranged finally have a place they can call home. That could mark the tipping point for some users to pull the plug.

Other issues that threaten the web are becoming apparent. As Google and Facebook grow more aggressive in redefining privacy rights, Internet-based lawsuits are on the rise. Plaintiffs demand that false personal information be wiped away from all sites, or that anonymous trolls who make libelous statements on message boards be outed.

Some experts even wonder if the Internet is structurally and architecturally capable of handling the billions more users anticipated in the coming years. The Internet is fragile and the public is fickle.

Let’s remember that not too long ago, within a certain age group, everybody who was anybody was on MySpace. Facebook took over as the premier social media site but most Millennials have moved on to newer, cooler social networking sites. In addition, it seems that some Generation X users and Boomers are tiring of Facebook’s endless stream of memes, political vitriol, and photos of dogs and babies.

Jeff Stibel, an author and entrepreneur who studies Internet usage, remarked last year that Facebook’s downfall could be people who post “content about how their cousin’s sister’s brother’s cat had a hairball… who needs to know that?”

If the Internet becomes not only risky but painfully trivial, how long before the Boomers who are barely computer-literate will start to pull back? How long will people continue to waste hours scanning all the catnip for online travelers devised by computer geeks?

Cyber-behavior is a strange phenomenon. We have come to learn that lists, for some reason, are irresistible to people when they are just a click away. I’m still waiting for this one: “The 15 stars who were born right-handed and switched to become lefties.”

How long before we refuse the temptation laid out by all of this so-called click bait?

Tuned-out vacations, when an entire family sets aside their gadgets for a week-long trip, are growing in popularity. No staring at a little screen to watch squirrels on skateboards for seven whole days. Maybe that trend will lead to something more.

Maybe the next generation will decide that the love of technology has gone haywire, that the addicting powers of the Internet are life-sapping.

Or, maybe it will simply come down to this: Kids embrace anything retro. So, maybe the next cultural cycle will call for a return to a relatively low-tech world.

It could happen. Record albums are making a comeback. Books still outsell ebooks by a wide margin. Maybe the future generation will think of smart phones in the same quaint way that Boomers think of typewriters.

Maybe. But … I just Googled “Internet implosion” and, in a fraction of a second, I learned some people have been making that same kind of crazy prediction since 2000. It must be true – I saw it on the Internet.