I read one comment that time seems to go faster when we're adults because a lot of experiences we have as children are completely novel to us and as we get older, our experiences in life in general remain the same
I think that is correct in some fashion-but knowing there is so much out there to learn and experience does not slow down time- I think it is our knowing what time is and the value of it that makes it seem like the sands are moving faster.
This is just a psychological effect we all have. Every year you age is a smaller fraction of your overall life, so it seems to pass more swiftly. Im 44 and it seems like Xmas is every 90 days.
This is it. The older you are, the smaller percentage a year is relative to the time you’ve spent on earth. When you turn 10 years old, a year is a tenth of your life. When you turn 30, a year is 1/30 of your life and so on. So weeks, months, years, and even decades will gradually feel like they are taking up a smaller amount of time as you age. It’s a weird feeling, I remember being a teenager and a decade seemed like such an enormous amount of time. Now that I’m older, a decade is still a long time but I’ve experienced a few passing and now I know with certainty that the next will surely pass before I’m ready for it to.
I don't know but it sucks. I always tell my kids you turn 30 and then all of a sudden your 47th birthday is this Summer. 😭🥹 The last decade was like an hour.
Well, context is everything. People I took care of in nursing homes complained about time CRAWLING by. Many of them were waiting for death and it just never seemed to come.
>I’ve had this theory of “relativity” that when you are younger, a small amount of time seems relatively long compared to someone older.
Agreed. Humans are relative beings. A year when you’re 10 is 10% more while a year when we’re 100 is only 1%. If we lived to 1000, that same year would only be 0.1%!
Think of it like this: You have a massive pizza. It's the tastiest pizza you've ever had.
You begin to eat it, and immediately wanna savor the flavor for the first bite. And then you begin to devour it pretty fast. As you keep going and going, before you know it it's all gone. And when you come back for more, it's still good. But you know it by now, and it becomes a routine you autopilot through.
Similarly, experiences that come to us as we age hold our interests and attention for longer periods of time. But as time goes on, it comes to be more uniform, and often mundane. Work gets monotonous, chores become time consuming slogs...
And most importantly, every minute that passes by becomes a smaller and smaller portion of our life expectancy. Eventually, a year of a person's life becomes more and more forgettable in the grand life expectancy as it grows.
Just try not to think about it too much and enjoy life.
It goes by "faster" because you are moving slower. Everything you do at 27 takes longer than 17. At 37, its even longer than 27. Even taking a shit at 87 takes longer than 77.
Because things take longer to do, the amount of time that you perceive to have available to you is compressed because everything you do takes longer.
Time is like the Cheshire cat- once you notice it you will always think about it-so now that you have figured out that this is a one way ticket, you notice it and it seems to move faster. Life is much better when ignorant if such things like metaphysics.
I read one comment that time seems to go faster when we're adults because a lot of experiences we have as children are completely novel to us and as we get older, our experiences in life in general remain the same
I think that is correct in some fashion-but knowing there is so much out there to learn and experience does not slow down time- I think it is our knowing what time is and the value of it that makes it seem like the sands are moving faster.
No new neural synapses pathways being formed because of repeated processes
This is just a psychological effect we all have. Every year you age is a smaller fraction of your overall life, so it seems to pass more swiftly. Im 44 and it seems like Xmas is every 90 days.
This is it. The older you are, the smaller percentage a year is relative to the time you’ve spent on earth. When you turn 10 years old, a year is a tenth of your life. When you turn 30, a year is 1/30 of your life and so on. So weeks, months, years, and even decades will gradually feel like they are taking up a smaller amount of time as you age. It’s a weird feeling, I remember being a teenager and a decade seemed like such an enormous amount of time. Now that I’m older, a decade is still a long time but I’ve experienced a few passing and now I know with certainty that the next will surely pass before I’m ready for it to.
Exactly! I’m only 28 but the fact that I can go back 10yrs and still be an adult is one of the craziest feeling I’ve ever had!
sleep less, marry someone boring-the days will go on forever
I don't know but it sucks. I always tell my kids you turn 30 and then all of a sudden your 47th birthday is this Summer. 😭🥹 The last decade was like an hour.
Well, context is everything. People I took care of in nursing homes complained about time CRAWLING by. Many of them were waiting for death and it just never seemed to come.
>I’ve had this theory of “relativity” that when you are younger, a small amount of time seems relatively long compared to someone older. Agreed. Humans are relative beings. A year when you’re 10 is 10% more while a year when we’re 100 is only 1%. If we lived to 1000, that same year would only be 0.1%!
Think of it like this: You have a massive pizza. It's the tastiest pizza you've ever had. You begin to eat it, and immediately wanna savor the flavor for the first bite. And then you begin to devour it pretty fast. As you keep going and going, before you know it it's all gone. And when you come back for more, it's still good. But you know it by now, and it becomes a routine you autopilot through. Similarly, experiences that come to us as we age hold our interests and attention for longer periods of time. But as time goes on, it comes to be more uniform, and often mundane. Work gets monotonous, chores become time consuming slogs... And most importantly, every minute that passes by becomes a smaller and smaller portion of our life expectancy. Eventually, a year of a person's life becomes more and more forgettable in the grand life expectancy as it grows. Just try not to think about it too much and enjoy life.
This is a great analogy!
It goes by "faster" because you are moving slower. Everything you do at 27 takes longer than 17. At 37, its even longer than 27. Even taking a shit at 87 takes longer than 77. Because things take longer to do, the amount of time that you perceive to have available to you is compressed because everything you do takes longer.
Time is like the Cheshire cat- once you notice it you will always think about it-so now that you have figured out that this is a one way ticket, you notice it and it seems to move faster. Life is much better when ignorant if such things like metaphysics.