Time flies as we get older

spectratg

spectratg

Senior Member
Location
Adamstown, MD
Our perception of time greatly changes as we get older. It is influenced by memory and how much we have experienced. For an 8 year old, 1 year is 10% of their lifetime; for a 5 year old it is a whopping 20%! But for an 80 year old, it is barely more than 1% of our life to date, and for a 50 year old it is 2%. For a child, a year is full of new events and changes, new ideas and experiences. But for us oldsters, our life has not changed much in the past year or two or three. Our brains blend time together in our minds and we feel like it went by quickly.

Our brains are trained to receive many images when we are infants, and eventually we learn how to start processing the wealth of information. The many experiences that children have in a day contribute to the notion that time is more plentiful and that more activities can fit into that time. When they look back, time feels slower. As adults, introducing new patterns and activities on a regular basis can help to slow down the passage of time. Do more and better things with the time that is available! These include, for example, new hobbies, overnight trips to a new destination, and signing up for classes. We need to get out of our routines and have the anticipation of something different. And most of all, always try to be fully engaged in the moment!
 
We plan travel itineraries, never knowing whether the next trip will be the last or if the previous trip was the last.......we sometimes wonder if we spend more time planning than on the trips themselves.

Prior to the plague we planned an extensive trip to S.W. Ukraine and S.E. Poland.......then.........
 
I feel it's not only our perception but time itself, being manmade,
is hugely distorted on Earth. Since time here is only in the relative
and is only a process of movement, I think it can be speeded
or slowed but not yet sustained as a force.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to travel in time? It's exciting to even
THINK about it!
 
The more experience and knowledge we cram in to
our memory banks, the quicker time flies, as a child,
I remember the summer holidays from school seemed
to last forever, 6 weeks, now-a-days, a year passes a
lot faster than those school holidays ever did.

Mike.
 
spectratg said:
Our perception of time greatly changes as we get older. It is influenced by memory and how much we have experienced. For an 8 year old, 1 year is 10% of their lifetime; for a 5 year old it is a whopping 20%! But for an 80 year old, it is barely more than 1% of our life to date, and for a 50 year old it is 2%. For a child, a year is full of new events and changes, new ideas and experiences. But for us oldsters, our life has not changed much in the past year or two or three. Our brains blend time together in our minds and we feel like it went by quickly.

Our brains are trained to receive many images when we are infants, and eventually we learn how to start processing the wealth of information. The many experiences that children have in a day contribute to the notion that time is more plentiful and that more activities can fit into that time. When they look back, time feels slower. As adults, introducing new patterns and activities on a regular basis can help to slow down the passage of time. Do more and better things with the time that is available! These include, for example, new hobbies, overnight trips to a new destination, and signing up for classes. We need to get out of our routines and have the anticipation of something different. And most of all, always try to be fully engaged in the moment!
Click to expand...
I agree with you, especially the part about doing new hobbies, etc. But at the same time, we need to know our limitations when we try something new and not put ourselves in harm's way.
 
Gaer said:
I feel it's not only our perception but time itself, being manmade,
is hugely distorted on Earth. Since time here is only in the relative
and is only a process of movement, I think it can be speeded
or slowed but not yet sustained as a force.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to travel in time? It's exciting to even
THINK about it!
Click to expand...
I travel in time with my mind.
 
The "value" of time depends on whose time it is.

Ask a 15- year- old teenager how long the year is until he gets his driver's license.

Ask a student how long that last month of school is.

Ask a child how long that week before Christmas is.

Ask a dad how long a day is when he's alone with the kids while his wife's away.

Ask a woman in labor how long an hour is.

Ask a toddler in time-out how long a minute is.

Ask an Olympic runner who's just missed a Gold Medal how long a second is.
 
Gaer said:
I feel it's not only our perception but time itself, being manmade,
is hugely distorted on Earth. Since time here is only in the relative
and is only a process of movement, I think it can be speeded
or slowed but not yet sustained as a force.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to travel in time? It's exciting to even
THINK about it!
Click to expand...
I travel in time with my mind.
jujube said:
The "value" of time depends on whose time it is.

Ask a 15- year- old teenager how long the year is until he gets his driver's license.

Ask a student how long that last month of school is.

Ask a child how long that week before Christmas is.

Ask a dad how long a day is when he's alone with the kids while his wife's away.

Ask a woman in labor how long an hour is.

Ask a toddler in time-out how long a minute is.

Ask an Olympic runner who's just missed a Gold Medal how long a second is.
Click to expand...
These are great examples about the perception of time!
 
@palides, This is the way I think about it. I've never believed in Creationism or Darwinism.
Let's say you were an adventurer from a higher planet and were asked or appointed to
be an explorer and inhabit a new world. (I speak of this as eons and eons ago)
Yes, Even before that, when men of valor walked the Earth. Before we devolved.
Nature exists on this Earth, where you will propagate as man and woman, LIFE, to inhabit
this new world.
Food must be planted, shelter, protection and you would have to invent TIME
to know when to plant and reap, to know morning from night, the seasons, the ages of man.
The moon, the stars, the seasons all had to be considered.
I know, a wild theory, but this is how I think TIME in the relative was created, BY MAN.
Just a thought. I know many on here will disagree.
 
Last edited:
jujube said:
The "value" of time depends on whose time it is.

Ask a 15- year- old teenager how long the year is until he gets his driver's license.

Ask a student how long that last month of school is.

Ask a child how long that week before Christmas is.

Ask a dad how long a day is when he's alone with the kids while his wife's away.

Ask a woman in labor how long an hour is.

Ask a toddler in time-out how long a minute is.

Ask an Olympic runner who's just missed a Gold Medal how long a second is.
Click to expand...

Or ask someone stuck in an unproductive, redundant staff meeting how much work they could be getting done if attendance wasn't mandatory.

More seriously, i do feel there is a very subjective element to our perceptions of time.
 
Sure, a lot of it has to do with perception.

I think some of it is physical limitations though. We can no longer "pop over" to the store or whatever; first we have to decide whether loading the walker into the car is worth it. Or something.

Or, we have to go home early because we don't want to drive in the dark, or something hurts, or we have to eat because we're diabetic. Or something.

So we have fewer things happening in a day. The day (or year) goes by, and there wasn't much in it.
 
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