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One possibility: It is a weird case of "this moment in time is special because I am alive".
Humans have been around for thousands of years but I am alive now. I cannot think of what the world could be like without me so therefore the human race must end in my lifetime.
This in not a new occurrence either, there have been "end of the world" groups in almost every generation in history.
List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
It is worth noting that people always think the apocalyptic event will happen within their lifetime.
The only real difference now is that the end of the world is now caused by humans via nukes or destruction of the environment rather than supernatural forces.
I agree that the spotlight effect (or main character syndrome in slang) plays in. We tend to expect our life to be extra special somehow.
It's also just fun to imagine exhilarating things. We're still dumb animals who have fun riding endorphins, whether it's skydiving or horror movies. Makes sense that myths about paranormal entities, natural disasters, end times, etc. are recurring in so many cultures. Same reason the Walking Dead is popular. It's exciting to imagine!
The most alive I've ever felt has been being shot at, running from cops/security, and throwing myself into a dog fight to save my dog who was attacked. Even when being driven to the ER, I was riding such a high. I got messed up, but I won, and damn did that feel good and powerful. He was a big dog. In a sorta twisted way, I kinda eagerly await life's unexpected events because of the adrenaline high and sustained retrospective excitement for a while.
What's more exciting than imaging the end of the word as our species knows it? That's the biggest factor in the answer to the question imo.
Well that's weird. When I was younger I almost died so many times I lost count, and it wasn't exhilarating. Just a broad sense of, "man, what a fucked up situation".