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Why does time seem to fly by as you grow older?
- Thread starter yellow wallpaper
- Start date
Because your perception of time changes. Each passing year is the same amount of time objectively, but that measurement of time becomes a smaller portion of your overall life, and so even though the same amount of time passed, your 30th or 40th year seems to come and go much quicker than your 10th or whatever.
Our perception of reality isn't some constant thing. Everything about it is always changing at least a tiny bit. Time is no different.
Our perception of reality isn't some constant thing. Everything about it is always changing at least a tiny bit. Time is no different.
There is some science behind it. Wish I could recall the book I bought for someone specifically about this very subject.
Edit* Found it
Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control it
Edit* Found it
Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control it
Last edited:
Maybe your memory becomes less specific because e.g. the first time you see a christmas tree you gotta take in all the details of that new concept, the more of them you see the more you can abstract the thought to "one of those". So you'll end up with less memories of each year the older you get?
Yep. When you're 6, a year is 1/6 of your life.
When you're 30, 5 years is 1/6 of your life.
This is compounded by the fact that years aren't marked by long summer breaks from school once you enter the workforce.
OP
OP
This would have the opposite effect that you're asserting if it was true.
Your days are more full with stuff like work, family, etc unlike when you were younger when you would/could be bored more often. The hours go by without you noticing
OP
OP
This.
Compare how the passage of time feels when you're driving to a new location you've never been to vs driving to a place you've been a thousand times before.
My work makes time fly.
I work on monthly marketing campaigns so as soon as you're done with 1 campaign, you get a little breathing space before its onto the next to ensure you meet deadlines.
It's a never ending cycle and can get exhausting as you try to analyse and improve your campaigns while your actively delivering them.
I work on monthly marketing campaigns so as soon as you're done with 1 campaign, you get a little breathing space before its onto the next to ensure you meet deadlines.
It's a never ending cycle and can get exhausting as you try to analyse and improve your campaigns while your actively delivering them.
You are experiencing less new things as you grow up, so time seems to go faster by doing nothing unusual.
Time goes by pretty slow in old age homes, I would think. Unless it's bingo night...
But really, adulting makes time go by faster because it's less free time. Suddenly, you don't have to just worry about school anymore, you have to work, do the shopping, pay the bills etc
But really, adulting makes time go by faster because it's less free time. Suddenly, you don't have to just worry about school anymore, you have to work, do the shopping, pay the bills etc
Retirement communities are more active than you think.
My father is 87, and he goes out dancing 3 nights a week, and the other 4 days are usually booked, too.
Wait until you have kids, it gets even worse when your life starts being defined by their age/growing milestones.
Because you stop doing adventures and filling your life with wonder and fascination so it just blurs into a mess, you go through the daily motions and then it ends.
Basically what I came to post.
I started keeping a "journal" this year, and it's been pretty interesting. I literally write one sentence about what I did or where I went, but yeah, scrolling back through it shows just how much stuff from even like early 2019 I've already forgotten about.
OP
OP
This is a quote that I can't agree with. I travel at least 2 times a year to places I've never been to before. The adventure thing is bs. It's what rocket scientist above said.
Heard a great podcast on this a few years back:
Your memory is like a needle making grooves into a vinyl record. To begin with, you press the writing needle very hard as your brain is making new memories - this slows the record down. The more new information your brain writes, the slower time seems to go. Time is more granular.
As you get older, less and less stuff seems new. At 15, Putting your shoes isn't new like it was when you were 5. At 25, seeing a classic movie isn't the same as when you were 10. At 30, getting drunk isn't the same as when you were 15. At 40, going to work isn't exciting and strange and new like it was when you were 20.
And that just keeps happening - every single thing you've experienced before gradually becoming less and less important to your brain, until the needle is writing down not very much. This means the vinyl record - time - is spinning faster and faster, because the needle of memory is barely pressing against it.
This is also why emergencies and accidents cause time to go "slowly" from your perception - your brain goes into "emergency - be careful" mode and begins writing down EVERYTHING It sees (in our analogy here the needle presses REALLY hard into the record and slows it right down) so you remember LOADS more stuff.
TL;DR: Time = memory. Making new memories = slower perception of time.
Your memory is like a needle making grooves into a vinyl record. To begin with, you press the writing needle very hard as your brain is making new memories - this slows the record down. The more new information your brain writes, the slower time seems to go. Time is more granular.
As you get older, less and less stuff seems new. At 15, Putting your shoes isn't new like it was when you were 5. At 25, seeing a classic movie isn't the same as when you were 10. At 30, getting drunk isn't the same as when you were 15. At 40, going to work isn't exciting and strange and new like it was when you were 20.
And that just keeps happening - every single thing you've experienced before gradually becoming less and less important to your brain, until the needle is writing down not very much. This means the vinyl record - time - is spinning faster and faster, because the needle of memory is barely pressing against it.
This is also why emergencies and accidents cause time to go "slowly" from your perception - your brain goes into "emergency - be careful" mode and begins writing down EVERYTHING It sees (in our analogy here the needle presses REALLY hard into the record and slows it right down) so you remember LOADS more stuff.
TL;DR: Time = memory. Making new memories = slower perception of time.
Yup. Adventurous everything. New experiences as much as you can.
When you start seeing the world in terms of weeks rather than days, time flies past with greater speed. Personal experience.
Saturdays are drugs.
Saturdays are drugs.
Yeah...that was just a joke. But I doubt his boogie nights make him feel as though time goes faster the older he gets. That was my point.
Heuristics. The older you get, the more things become routine. Your brain compartmentalizes everything into shortcuts, so more things become automatic and less things become full conscious experiences.
Time is change of state, you have nothing of importance that needs to be burned into your short and longterm memory? Change of state seems minimal, once you are out of school and trapped in a comfortable job/recreation cycle that drops to such a level that you look back at 20 years and wonder why they flew by like that. If you want to minimize that feeling then start learning new and difficult things. Burn stuff into your memory that fills up spacetime in your mind, once you become a consumption and repetition animal, it's over!
You stop absorbing as much information, and thus your brain filters out filler you already got used to. I remember watching MK as a kid (yep I know I was a super cool kid) and the Sonya vs Kano fight lasted like an hour, but when I rewatched it again when I was 17 I realized the scene was like barely 5 minutes long. Its wild.
People are constantly busy and occupied. People work 8-12 hours a day, which leaves them just a few hours a day to themselves. If they have a family or any other type of responsibilities, school for instance, that time is even further restricted. Now you repeat this day in and day out. Days melt into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. When we are constantly occupied, we pay less attention to time and it seems to move faster. In order to slow it down you need to break routine.
Memories also plays a factor.
Memories also plays a factor.
That's super good to hear and I agree. My grandfather does woodworking multiple times a week and my grandmother in the same community has a movie club and talks to neighbours a lot. Breaks my heart to know that some retirement/elderly communities aren't as well connected though.
