One of the most common things older individuals tell younger individuals is how fast their lives seemed to go by. Many people swear that as they get older, time goes by more quickly. You may have seen this trend yourself in your own experience, and this strengthens the belief. This belief is further reinforced by the fact that the idea that time goes by faster as you age is a common belief that many agree with. When others around you share a belief, it often becomes more believable, especially if your own experience seems to back this up.
Yet, you may notice something strange if you experience this. Despite time seemingly going faster as you age, some points in time still seem to drag on and on. Traveling long distances is still boring. Waiting for a pot of water to boil still seems to take forever. The day at work or school still seems to go on way too long. If time is going faster, then why does it seem to go by slowly in many cases?
The answer is a flaw in perception. If you are young or old, time is still going forward at seemingly the same rate. Yet, looking back at the past is where things change. If you are ten, one year is one tenth, or ten percent of your life. Thus, one year seems like a very long time. If you are eighty, one year is one eightieth, or 1.25 percent of your life. Thus, looking back into the past, one year does not seem as long compared to how long you have lived. As you age, you are still going though time slowly and can still become bored; yet, each period of time in the past appears to be shorter than it seemed when you were younger.1 This is known as the Diminishing Perspective of the Politic of Experience.2
Another factor is that when you are young, everything is a new experience that you have never seen before. An eclipse is you fist eclipse. The time you ride a bicycle is your first time riding. Playing baseball is your first time playing it. The first Christmas you remember is especially unique. Because these are new experiences, they are more memorable. Once you’re older, you’ve done these experiences before. They are no longer new and unique. Thus, they are less memorable when you do them over and over again. Looking back at your life, these experiences are more likely to stick out to you if it was your first time than if it was your 70th. Thus, it seems like you had more experiences and experienced life more when you were younger than when you were older. Therefore, these time periods seemed to take longer because there is more to remember them by.
So if you are feeling bummed out thinking your past experiences went by way too quickly or if you fear your experiences will be burned through really quickly when you get older, my advice is not to fret about it. Instead, just relax and enjoy life to its fullest remembering that the great experiences you had (and will have later) often last far longer than they might seem at first glance, and the memories of those wonderful experiences can last a lifetime.
References:
- Puskar, Mathew. Personal Interview.
- Austin, Dennis. Personal Interview.
- Deneky. “Date a Live – Kurumi.” DeviantArt. DeviantArt, 30 May 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2020. https://www.deviantart.com/deneky/art/Date-a-Live-Kurumi-612148004.