Modern society and work makes people have less free time to form memories. Certainly, people felt time is running fast even in older times but I doubt if time ran faster at the same rate for people from say 50s as much as it is for us today?
Why time seems to pass faster as we age
131–140 of 272 posts
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#132I think that the older you get, the less new milestones/events you have (that impress you and remember in detail). This results in having less moments to refer to when looking back in time, (skipping uneventful timespans). This makes things seem closer to the current time than they really are as everything in between is empty noise.
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#133I don't agree that it does. Something I've noticed as I've gotten older is that it feels like time is passing more slowly. My late 30s is when time felt like it passed the fastest. On the other hand, if you're talking about "that happened two years ago, but it feels like it was yesterday" I agree. I don't think that's what the post is talking about.
You might be an interesting specimen for scientific research. What food do you eat? Do you travel the world year round? Do you moisturize? Seriously, I'd probably give a year of my life to experience it being two years longer.
When my kid was young, it felt like time was evaporating. Days would fly by without any possibility of doing the things I needed to do, much less do the things I wanted to do. My life was defined by my time shortages. That's no longer the case. Not that I'm less busy (this is the busiest I've ever been) but I seem to have things better under control. So I think it's more about being better at time management.
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#134I've been journalling for 10+ years. In addition to forcing me to actually write down what happened that day, reviewing old entries provides a feeling of history that makes life feel soooo long and so rich. I can review my now-wife's rocky courtship and feel grateful we made it. I looked back 3 years ago and found the day our children were conceived :D (we have twins). I can review the anxieties of my PhD years, etc…
> reviewing old entries provides a feeling of history that makes life feel soooo long and so rich. This doesn't sound right at all. For me, and I suspect for most people, it has the opposite effect. It makes life feel short, fleeting and mundane. Looking back to 2014, I can't believe how quickly the past 10 years has gone. Heck just looking back 4 years, the pandemic years seems to have flown by. It's like a distant…
> It makes life feel short, fleeting and mundane
I read somewhere else that time speeds up when we repeat a few boring/not-so-stressful things each day.
> reviewing old entries provides a feeling of history that makes life feel soooo long and so rich
I want to agree with it. The more I take on and do, however imperfectly and which involves a bit more stress, it starts to slow down time. At least in the sense that you look back at the previous year and think "wow that was a lot and it seems like so long ago" when it actually wasn't that long ago.
> It makes life feel short, fleeting and mundane
In fact, the key might be to journal more of the mundane things. Like how many times I had to get on a call with the background verification company to speed up my move to the new company.
and from OP article,
> Surprising information comes in droves every single day, so the brain simply paid a lot of attention
how come all the new/surprising info from shorts/reels/tiktok not have a effect of slowing down time haha?
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#135I've been journalling for 10+ years. In addition to forcing me to actually write down what happened that day, reviewing old entries provides a feeling of history that makes life feel soooo long and so rich. I can review my now-wife's rocky courtship and feel grateful we made it. I looked back 3 years ago and found the day our children were conceived :D (we have twins). I can review the anxieties of my PhD years, etc…
> reviewing old entries provides a feeling of history that makes life feel soooo long and so rich. This doesn't sound right at all. For me, and I suspect for most people, it has the opposite effect. It makes life feel short, fleeting and mundane. Looking back to 2014, I can't believe how quickly the past 10 years has gone. Heck just looking back 4 years, the pandemic years seems to have flown by. It's like a distant…
> the pandemic years seems to have flown by. It's like a distant memory now.
So does it feel distant or just like yesterday (i.e. time flew by)? The two seem contradictory.
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#136I had some very long periods of intense suffering over the last decade. After... a lot, I'm in a much better place now.
I made some minor lifestyle changes to make things a bit easier on myself, but nothing earth-shattering. Most of my days are largely the same.
However, life moves much more slowly now. When I get to the end of a week, Monday seems quite a long time ago.
I'm not sure about the predictability thesis. The way I think about it is that I have no expectations from life anymore; I take what I can get, give what I can, and focus on one day at a time. I think this more than anything has contributed to a feeling of my life slowing way down.
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#137I always thought of it as each unit of time being relatively shorter in relation to your life on earth. A year is 20% of the time a 5-year old is aware of, but only 2% of a 50-year olds life. But the boredom argument is pretty strong. I remember vividly the time when I moved to another country and those first three months still feel like they lasted longer than the last three years.
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#138It is a progression:
year 1 = 100% of your life year 2 = 50% of your life year 3 = 33% of your life ... year 10 = 10% of your life ... year 50 = 2% of your life
etc.
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I can't believe more people don't just travel for a decade.
Certainly many people on this website could if it were their priority. Some money is required, but not very much. I’m sure I make less money than many here because I take jobs that prioritize remote work and flexibility. So what’s really the blocker for many is a choice of priorities. I won’t have children. I don’t have a strong need to play homemaker or gardener. My lifestyle is pretty similar to a lot of retirees w…
Definitely. My brother works in a trade, works for a year or two then quits and travels for 6+ months at a time. He also has very few possessions and no liabilities or commitments. I prefer a slightly different balance with a few more possessions but still travel for about a month a year. Like you say, it's all about priorities. We all work way longer/harder than we need to for basic sustenance.
Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age
#140> Processing speeds start decreasing well before age forty (which may be why mathematicians and physicists commonly do their best work in their youth).
Atul Gawande, Being Mortal