If you have ever spent any time talking to someone older, you most definitely have heard them spout something along the lines of “Life is too short”, followed by a various statement usually convincing you to stop doing something. Personally I used to think that life seems pretty long and a day can seem like a long time, but as I get older, I find myself thinking quite the opposite. Recently people have done studies asking the question of whether or not the older we get, if we perceive time as moving faster.
The theory behind us perceiving time moving faster is mostly because when we were little 5 years seemed like no time, but at 60 years, it is a much smaller fraction of your life. Due to being a small fraction in the grand scheme of your life, we perceive it as going by faster. However the real probability is actually much more interesting. What if I said that rather than time moving faster, the times we actually remember are far more infrequent than when we were younger.
This was the idea that was first proposed in the turn of the 20th century by psychologist William James. His hypothesis was that because the human mind remembers events more clearly the first time we do them and that most of our firsts happen at a young age, our perception of time feels much slower. As we age, we become more routine in the way we do things and many of our firsts are harder to come by. By our old age when firsts rarely happen, life seems to pass by at the speed of light. Especially when we become consumed in our work and do nothing else, life passes us by.
Much of this has to do with actually how we are living our lives on a daily basis. If we are working towards something and have set goals that we want to accomplish, time could seem like it moves at a snails pace. Once we become more engaged with our own lives and don’t just sit around doing nothing, we are perceiving time at a slower pace, but better yet, using time efficiently. We cant ever go back in time, so the next best thing is to take advantage of and savor every last minute we are getting.
No matter what age you are, there is always a way to try something new and go after new experiences. In the grand scheme of life, most people hardly ever remember items they bought or money they spent, experiences are what last a life time. So if you are someone that feels like life is passing by at too fast of a pace, perhaps it is just passing you by. Maybe you need to experience something new or try to find a new hobby that brings joy to your life. If you remember every day as joyful and productive, you will never think that time is passing you by.
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yeah this is very true. I wanna quit life and just steem all day , yeah baby
In my own life, I've noticed that time seems to fly when I have a "real job." When I'm not working a traditional 9-5, time goes much slower and it seems like I get a lot more satisfaction and fulfillment from each day.
A good way to gauge this is to ask yourself, "How far away is Christmas?"
When you're a kid, if your family celebrates Christmas, that's probably one of the highlights of your year. In January, it seems forever away. But even in November, you'd ask your mom every day, "How many days until Christmas?" And she'd say "Only thirty more days", and you'd groan. Thirty? That's so far away!
But as an adult, Christmas never seems that far away. By fall, it feels like Christmas is just around the corner. With twenty days to go, you start to panic about whether you'll have enough time to buy gifts and make preparations.
When I'm not working a "real job", Christmas still seems pretty far away. Even in November.
I wonder about this too, thanks for sharing! Let's live a purposeful life.
Nice perspective and analysis. I actually have been thinking about this for awhile and came to the following conclusion: The perception of time gets faster as you age simply because you are more aware of how long something is.
For example, the more knowledge you have of something, the better you understand it. The same goes for time, if you have experienced it for a longer period than others, you have a better way to measure that time in comparison to what you are doing in the present.
I was very busy with college and starting my career in my 20's, but it seemed to go on forever. Now that I am in my early 40's and working hard as ever with my career, I seem to be seeing time move by faster.
This is something that a young person may never understand until they live it through their 20's and 30's.
For shure, for my humble point of view is that we are very occupied with more stuff, and more thing on our head, family, work, problems, you name it, but the old people and the child’s, consider the time more slow, because, the things over their heads are less, that’s kind of my answer
I life is short as they say and we need to enjoy it. experience everything you haven't done before, live a happy life with the one who loves you the most.
Of course we perceive that time is moving faster as we grow older -- because it is! Somehow, it just is. It must be. Yes, I'm convinced that it is moving much faster.
Source
Well i am only 25 and i feel like time just flies.. I hate time wasting and always say there isn't enough time for everything. And I think that time goes a lot faster when you are busy rather than the other way around. When you are always occupied with something at least for me it feels like days and months then years just pass by in a flash. When you are up to nothing usually are bored and even days can drag forever.
I definitely feel time moving faster and thanks for sharing that it could be that I'm not doing enough and specifically trying out new things and activities. I had a friend who describe experiencing time moving faster at an older age as going through a toilet roll, it always feel that it's running out faster when we are coming to the end of the roll ;)
The part about fewer new experiences being made and how our routine is build-in especially relating to work made me think of Steve Cutts short movie: In The Fall
Thank you very much for sharing your success.
Nice analysis. That is the kind of post I joined steemit for!
And it's true, after a certain age (for me it was the finish of highschool) time just passes by faster. Or just feels like it, of course it doesn't ;)
However I think that is rather the new things that pass by faster now. One week of holiday flys by like nothing. :)
Time is our most valuable asset, maybe that's why it goes so quick, just like it takes us 2 mins to spend what takes us a whole day to work for, for example. When I was working a 9-5 type job/real job it felt like my life was pointlessly passing by and all my time and energy felt wasted, and when you start to think of your life like an hourglass it becomes a scary thing for lots of different reasons. But I guess the reason we perceive time travelling faster is that eveything slows down when you're older its like life goes in to reverse, but it helps you to realise the importance of your time in life and not to waste it on stupid things. Also talking from a personal level of seeing loved ones on their death beds, realising how important it is to ''make time'' for family. Life is precious and we need to truly appreciate it and those around us. Enjoyed reading your post. Thanks :)
TIME itself is intriguing. It is said that the lost TIME is never found again. This is the consensus.
Best thing is enjoy TIME with love ones. IRREPLACEABLE
Nice post !!
Interesting.. bordom, anxiety, stress time SLOW,
Good times, always fast!
Is not perception is a difference in dimensions. Oh, yes. Time lapses can get real weird, Morty.
I remember as a child I would break down each month of the summer with separate things to do, so time does fly as we age
I have heard that explanation concerning the amount of time being a smaller fraction of your life and felt this conclusion was incomplete. This makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the post.
I really like your post ,, !!!
Thanks
for
sharing,,,!!!
Often time we are in a rush to get grown only to wish to be a kid again. We get consumed with the daily tasks of day to day living and weeks go by without us really knowing. Another great read. 👍🏾👍🏾
Interesting post. Time does feel faster as one ages, oddly though, the days feel long but the weeks and months seem to go fast.
Interesting article, I believe that is called the "Ziph Principle".
i.e. a human's perception of time quickens at a logarithmic rate.
Live everyday like it's the last! Don't waste time 😊
I have absolutely seen this effect on my life.
When I was younger, the only time that I paid any attention too was when I needed to be a specific place at a specific time. Plus, I was always looking to get off work or get away from tasks to go and have fun. This meant for me that time dragged.
Today, time seems to be going so fast as children grow up so quick, I have to be places and I lose track of time due to me being focused on a task that I lost track of that time.
For me, I look down and then realize 'wow' where did the time go!
Speed of time is about perception of time.
I love it!
I think it's a constant race - us versus time and time versus us. What I don't understand, is why do we race against time when we know that we can't change the pace of time, but we can set our own pace (I guess easy said than done!)
According to a finding that I read about once, the perception of time's speed can be altered by temperature: when it's cold, time seems to go faster, and when it's warm time is perceived as going more slowly. This would go towards explaining those long summer days that last(ed) forever when we were all young, and also the fact that our body temperature drops as we get older, so that time would seem to speed up in accordance with body temp.
Thanks for posting about this-- always a fun topic.
This.... Wow. What an amazing explanation of an issue so many of us face. And I'm in that very same boat. A day today goes by in a second. As a kid I remember watching the clock as minutes felt like hours.
And I do agree that once we are engaged with a new activity time seems to give back a little bit of that acceleration. Will keep that in mind :)
I am of the opinion that time is perceived as passing faster the older you become. I live n Cancun Mexico and time seems to pass quickly. When I use to live in the U.S.A I'd see the seasons change and time seemed to drag by slowly... Here it is sunny most of the year with just a rainy season, so for me it seems very fast the holidays fly by and then... hey it's already new years again.
The idea of repetition of early life events changing ones perception of time seems accurate the older we become
But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time? ... there is only one constant, one universal, it is the only real truth: causality. --- The Merovingian
A most excellent post to spend time on ;-)
I last 5 months of my life, time slowed down a lot. I feel like from the start of the year another year has passed. I noticed the difference because i'm much more "in the now" daily i come across things from completely diffrerent angle than before. I try to trind my mind to not me in such a mess and be focused on one thing, this allows me to "experience time" more. And as you wrote it might be like this because since i'm much more focused my memory works better, so i remember and i'm aware much more than before it feels like you are a kid in a sense.
Great article. This is something I'm beginning to grapple with more and more as a new father. Time seemed so clear and linear as a teenager and into early adulthood. But increasingly it plays tricks on me. I find my self wondering if I'm alone in this. Your article was super helpful on that front. Thank you!
I think our great tendency to remain creatures of habit contributes to the appearance of this effect. The younger you are, the more your life generally changes rapidly. As we get older, we tend to live in the same place, have the same friends, same routines, same jobs, etc. for a much longer period. Fewer days become memorable and noteworthy, and it can all appear to pass us by in a blur.
Different situations seem to make time move at at different pace
If you are busy time flies and if you are bored or in pain then time drags
Also when you experience a death of someone close to you time seems to stand still for that period while people further away from the death seem to experience time at a normal pace
I'd say time moves at a set pace . Its just our perception of time that changes
The perception of time is relative. To slow down time, engage in more activities that excite you
Good read, one thing is sure, when talking about time in the form of memories and having recollection, the past and how we perceive memories has nothing to do with how we experience time. When being aware of how time feels constantly as every now moment happens, the now doesn't change much and doesn't move faster at any age. Now can feel slower and slower the more you allow yourself to be aware of what is going on around you at all times. As soon as your mind travels outside of reality into past and future contemplations, all perception experiences are game and can fall into typical behavioral patterns of the average person.
Time does go faster...the timeline is longer so i think our reference expands?
Interesting post, I always thought it was because of the smaller fraction theory. Thanks for sharing a different perspective.
The way it is. In addition, time tends to stretch in stressful situations. I remember, once I had to hang curtains, but the leg of the stool broke. I fell in a split second. Thank God, no damage. But in my mind I was flying for much longer. Probably 20 seconds. 20 years have passed, but I remember as now the upside room, vertical floor and my fall on it.
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My personal theory is that the brain has a "refresh" rate similar to a CPU clock. Metabolic processes, especially the time it takes for neurons to achieve the chemical balance to fire another signal likely degrades as we age.
As this Brain Refresh starts to slow, so does our perception of time. I don't think it is just linked to memory formation and recall as the article suggests. It is more likely a structural thing.
This means that every process is affected, though it isn't as if your heart rate slows just because you are aging. I'm talking simply about the reuptake delay that creeps into the neurons themselves.
You could have an acceptable amount of decay in this refresh without interfering with the autonomic systems that the body runs on its own, like breathing and pumping blood.
So we age, our brains strobing and sensing just a fraction slower than we normally would. And as it does so, we experience time speeding up as our cells slowly give in to entropy.
Your posts are so informative and inspires me in so many ways...
Thank you very much @calaber24p
Don't stop posting!! haha ;-)
Lots of love,
@mysticlilly16
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I'm not that old haha, but I think that in the past few years days go by much faster than when i was younger. Interesting topic and great article!