Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
1–10 of 31 posts
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#2Maybe this is naive, but the younger you are, the larger the ratio of each unit of time to your total time lived. So each unit of time seems longer.
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#3Maybe this is naive, but the younger you are, the larger the ratio of each unit of time to your total time lived. So each unit of time seems longer.
That's what I always thought.Plus when you're older, for most I'd guess, your life becomes full of routines.
I used to think sitting through a 3 hour lecture was an eternity. Now after sitting at a desk for 10 hours a day 3 hours is just seen as a morning.
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#4It seems like the argument presented should be testable using amnesia patients. Assuming that their past memories are erased and that all experiences are "new" and need to be fully encoded, shouldn't science be able to question them to see whether, novelty is in fact linked to our perceived length of time?
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#5"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity." - Albert Einstein
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#6Maybe this is naive, but the younger you are, the larger the ratio of each unit of time to your total time lived. So each unit of time seems longer.
I think its a mix of both, but mostly yours.
When you are 4, turning 5 is another 20-25% of your life. When you're 39, turning 40 is more like .025% of your life.
Perception of time changes because we have more of it to compare it to, making it feel like its accelerating. But that is all relative.
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#7I would peg it somewhere in the memory pathways too. Still, generally, when I for example see something for the first time - an ad, say - it feels much longer than it will on any subsequent view.
Then there are the dreams: an immense amount of information, minutes or hours of "dream time" but only seconds to minutes of real time. (For the adventurous: you can actually get to a state where you can experience this while awake by causing yourself severe sleep deprivation which leads to, essentially, waking dreams.)
There is a flipside, too: the slow-motion feel you get in a dangerous situation.
Maybe it is simply that the brain is capable of a higher processing rate than what it usually uses, and it is employed when necessary. Usually in cases of manipulating the memory pathways (including dreaming), but also triggered by survival situations.
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#8My personal theory is that the novelty of an experience is not the only factor. I think the notion that time passes slower when you're young is because you didn't have much of it yet. When you're 10, 1 minute compares to your experience: 10 years. Now when you're 30 that same minute is now compared to 3 times more, based on your experience.
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#9Maybe this is naive, but the younger you are, the larger the ratio of each unit of time to your total time lived. So each unit of time seems longer.
I think its a mix of both, but mostly yours. When you are 4, turning 5 is another 20-25% of your life. When you're 39, turning 40 is more like .025% of your life. Perception of time changes because we have more of it to compare it to, making it feel like its accelerating. But that is all relative.
You mean 2.5%... or maybe your perception really has accelerated. :)
Re: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
#10There is a relatively new form of psychology called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It basically marries eastern philosophy and meditation with western science. One thing it does try to do is combat this sensation by living in the moment. In one of my ACT books (written by the founder of the movement), he advocates that as you drive to work you should practice staying in that moment, take it all in, don't let your mind wander. Doing this makes that 20 minute drive feel like 20 minutes.