That Was Just Your Life

Does time seem to go faster as you get older?

I have found, personally, that it does. The days are not only shorter, but what I used to be able to accomplish in one day now takes several. Things are moving very fast and as technology continues to improve, it seems that time is the casualty.

It is somewhat of a paradox. As technology gets better, there is technically less for us to do or remember, which means there should be more time to take part in activities we find enjoyable. On the contrary, however, we often find ourselves working too late, sleeping too little and spending less time doing what we love.

We invest most of our time and energy into meeting the demands of others while limiting the amount used on ourselves. This comes at a cost to our personal growth and psychological development. Nevertheless, it seems these things are not so important now that we have such advanced technology.

Is it simply hindsight or a profound sense of nostalgia that causes one to think time is getting faster? Or is it that, in reality, time really is speeding up?

reply to post by Dark Ghost
As the technology got better so did the level of expectation. once upon a time it was polite to return a phone call the following day. I have heard about the toilet roll theory, but young people seem to be experiencing a similiar feeling?

My days are endless. Insomnia makes sure I am aware of every moment.

I wish time was going faster..

Having said that, the distance between one year and the end of it, appears to be a lot faster.

It's just taking such a long time for things to happen faster, is all..

reply to post by winofiend

Try and imagine yourself in a really safe and comfortable place.
Maybe run a bath.
It helps me sleep.

reply to post by titzycronulla


When you get older you just have another perspective on life. You aren't desperately waiting for the school year to end - you aren't desperately waiting to get your driver's license, first job, first boy/girl friend, first sexual encounter, first "legal" trip to a bar ---

I'm waiting for retirement - but there's bills I want to pay off first.

It's just a different perspective on life.

Originally posted by titzycronulla
reply to post by winofiend

 

Try and imagine yourself in a really safe and comfortable place.
Maybe run a bath.
It helps me sleep.

Just don't fall asleep in the bath.

I find the weeks are flying by at the moment. Though my days feel more like groundhog days.

Originally posted by Happy1
reply to post by titzycronulla

 

When you get older you just have another perspective on life. You aren't desperately waiting for the school year to end - you aren't desperately waiting to get your driver's license, first job, first boy/girl friend, first sexual encounter, first "legal" trip to a bar ---

I'm waiting for retirement - but there's bills I want to pay off first.

It's just a different perspective on life.

What he said. Couldn't have said it better myself.

reply to post by Dark Ghost

I guess as we age and time passes, any given period of time be it a day, a week, a month, or a year or more becomes a smaller percentage of our life.

So in retrospective, it appears that time has moved or moves faster as we age - and to compound the perception, as we age, we become more aware of our mortality as our perceived reckoning of time nears.

There was a good science documentary on BBC a while ago covering this presented by Michio Kako.
The whole documentary is worth watching if you can find it anywhere.

But here's a short extract from it where he is looking at the perception of a minute passing to people of different ages:

Being experienced in being older than dirt myself, I think you need to look deeper into what you have discovered about yourself. but I can only speak from my experience to perhaps give you some insight. For me, It is a personal perspective problem having to do with aging, seeing and physically feeling that the clock is running out coupled with the failure to having contributed anything of significance or meaningful to anything.

The reason for this condition is the self-awareness ability of the human animal, that damned consciousness. We think too much about what we have lost or never had rather than living at whatever level we happen to retain. Careful, it can become a self-pity party.

reply to post by router404


Thanks for the video. That explains it well in my opinion. I had always thought the explanation of this phenomenon was more like what other posters are commenting on but this explanation is much better. I might even try this experiment on my own!

I've been feeling the opposite lately, like the day is getting longer, like what I was able to do in a day takes about an hour giving me more free time and I don't like it because I need to be doing something

reply to post by Angelfied95


Isn´t that a good thing? I wish I had more time. There is so much left to do, so much left to see, so much left to learn. I never have free time, where I nothing is to do. There is always something to do

Of course, when younger, everything seems to take longer. For example highschool, university seem to take ages, while the moment you graduate you realise how everything happened like in a blink

Everything depends on the tempo of one´s life and the activities he/she does. When you do something you love, time flies, the opposite when doing something you hate. For example waiting for an hour, seems as infinity, while when I am working on my projects, an hour seems to pass with every blink. Anytime I watch the clock, another hour or two has passed...

It's only reasonable that the perception of 'time flying by' increases as one ages. When you are younger (let's say 5 years old) one year is 1/5 of your life's experience. So a year seems like an expansive time period. Thus every successive year, will be a lower fraction of your life. Once you are 80 one year is 1/80 of your life's experience. So a year would 'seem' to have passed much faster than EVERY year previous.

I hope this kind of makes sense.


But in all reality, instant access to phones, email, text, internet, etc. etc. the stress level of everyday life increases IMO.

Just 6 short years ago I didn't have a cell phone or internet. (out of choice)

Due to a career change, I was forced to integrate into this absurdly phone obsessed society (lol) and I tells you....there is little R and R. Constantly on call, if I don't reply to emails and calls instantly I lose potential income.

In some ways I pine for the simplicity of yesteryear.