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Is Time Passing Quicker or Are You Just Old?

violet_crown

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Cool guy Maximilian Kiener has put together an interactive infographic describing why time seems to pass quicker as you get older.



Turns out back in the 19th century there was a guy named Paul Janet. Janet's big idea was that we perceive time relative to the “absolute” time we compare it to. In other words, the longer you’re alive, the smaller a year becomes in relation to your entire life as a whole. For example, when you’re five, a year is 20% of your entire life. When you’re 50, however, a year is only 2% of your life. You can click on the image above to check out the infographic.
 

Red Herring

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I think there's a lot to this. At age 35 time definitely does seem to go by much quicker and it gets harder to tell how long ago something happened (something might feel like it was a few weeks ago but it's really been months, or 1-2 years feels like just a few months, etc.). A year is no longer as much as it used to be back in my teens or even twenties.

Another important factor might be how busy you are during a certain time period or how many changes take place in your life/environment during a certain time span. That again might be linked to different phases in life. Just a spontaneous thought.
 

violet_crown

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I think there's a lot to this. At age 35 time definitely does seem to go by much quicker and it gets harder to tell how long ago something happened (something might feel like it was a few weeks ago but it's really been months, or 1-2 years feels like just a few months, etc.). A year is no longer as much as it used to be back in my teens or even twenties.

Another important factor might be how busy you are during a certain time period or how many changes take place in your life/environment during a certain time span. That again might be linked to different phases in life. Just a spontaneous thought.

Your post has had me stuck on this page for the past half hour. I really really need to go to bed. THANKS.
 

Cellmold

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I think it also has to do with our familiarity with information.

As a child you're learning every day and everything is new and original, but as you grow older there isn't as much attention spared to every single thing like there was as a child.

A child in its high chair drops a spoon for effect and is fascinated by its impact with the ground. An adult knows that usually a spoon that is let go of while at the table will clatter down, it isn't interesting anymore and there is no desire to follow that outcome when experience tells you what is most likely to happen. If there is an interest it might be in the physics surrounding why that happens at all.

But as a purely sensory experience it is over and done with.
 

SearchingforPeace

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I realized this at 20. Now at 45, years can disappear relatively quickly. Pretty sad when you think about it.....I blinked between 40 & 45 and those years were gone.....
 

Doctor Cringelord

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I am 34 years old and this has been my experience as well.
 

JocktheMotie

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I think there's a lot to this. At age 35 time definitely does seem to go by much quicker and it gets harder to tell how long ago something happened (something might feel like it was a few weeks ago but it's really been months, or 1-2 years feels like just a few months, etc.). A year is no longer as much as it used to be back in my teens or even twenties.

Another important factor might be how busy you are during a certain time period or how many changes take place in your life/environment during a certain time span. That again might be linked to different phases in life. Just a spontaneous thought.

This, and in addition I think people are just less present as they get older, their mind is in the future more often in terms of the practical things they need to be doing and less on the immediate self. Do something like Yoga, or some meditation/mindfulness time and things screech to a serene halt.
 

Kas

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Turns out back in the 19th century there was a guy named Paul Janet. Janet's big idea was that we perceive time relative to the “absolute” time we compare it to. In other words, the longer you’re alive, the smaller a year becomes in relation to your entire life as a whole. For example, when you’re five, a year is 20% of your entire life. When you’re 50, however, a year is only 2% of your life. You can click on the image above to check out the infographic.

That's exactly what I've told a friend recently. Dammit whatever I say , someone told ages before.
There are many factores, but I think it's the most important one.

It's said that boring activities are making the time pass slower. As Tarrou in "The Plague" was waiting in queues to have more time.
Although maybe it depends on the person. When something is boring I tend to switch off and think about something else. It's when I'm here and now when I can feel every second and that's usually when sth new and exciting is happening.
 

ceecee

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No, I'm just old. This is why I don't spend time dwelling on it. If I did, I'd be wasting a bigger percentage of that already small allotment and I'd rather do something interesting with that time.
 

Qlip

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There's no doubt I'm old and time feels to be moving faster. But, the year where I moved to a new city without a job or a place to live seemed just as long as an elementary school year. I've often theorized that time passing is perceived in relation to how much you are actively thinking, which if true would correlate to a degree to the O.P. chart. by the fact that a longer life increases experience and decreases surprises in life.
 

Kensei

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You know what I think it is? i think it has nothing to do with age, and more to do with the stress of your daily life. When you're in highschool, you have to worry about getting into a good college, and get a job, much less your dream job, and you have little to no control over that worry. In college you have much hard work to do to conplete your degree, plus the stress of failing, dropping out, and being a loner. When you become an adult you have a job, which emits daily stress, but at least you don't have to worry about your future anymore. When you get old you have little to no stress, because you are retired, have no future left to worry about, and you can finally pursue your interests freely, with arthritis being the biggest worry. Basically what I'm trying to say is that the older the average person gets, the less worry they have about the future, and being lost in worry with a lack of things to do makes life go slow as the older you get, the more responsibility, but the less worry you have. People never consider invidual problems when doing research, preferring to lump everyone in the same age group into one big category when many of these "peers" have absolutely nothing in common.
 

grey_beard

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My clocks serve dual usage as wall fans...
 

Luke O

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It depends on what I'm doing - my level of absorption into something? If I'm really focused on something, I can lose track of time and it can feel that time goes quicker. If something bores the shit out of me, and I'm not really focused, time seems to go slower (plus I'm inclined to check the time more). Like the saying goes, "Time flies when you're having fun".
 
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