Why does time seem to speed up as you age?

Originally posted by watchZEITGEISTnow
I always thought time was an illusion bought on 3rd density existences such as our own, although we are in the 4th dimension as well. apparently to the mayan calendar time is speeding up .... fast.

You hit the nail on the head...

Perception as opposed to actualization.
Time being the physical constant.

The math is of course complicated, but the concept not so much. If one considers that we exist within "Time" and yet being sentient, perceive the universe outside of "time" the picture become increasingly clear.

It is our perceptions that are inconstant, not time.

This assumption was demolished by the discovery of the law of propagation of light. For if the velocity of light in empty space is to be a quantity that is independent of the choice (or, respectively, of the state of motion) of the inertial system to which it is referred, no absolute meaning can be assigned to the conception of the simultaneity of events that occur at points separated by a distance in space. Rather, a special time must be allocated to every inertial system. If no co-ordinate system (inertial system) is used as a basis of reference there is no sense in asserting that events at different points in space occur simultaneously. It is in consequence of this that space and time are welded together into a uniform four-dimensional continuum. (Einstein, 1992)

Why Time is Absolute

Semper

reply to post by Flighty


Good point. I think hormones may figure in the matrix also .

We may go though some type of renewal/reflection in our fifties. This is surely another growth period;knowing ourselves better and our true relationships to others and our chosen God.

Time doesnt actually speed up, it only seems to because once we get older we are typically obligated to a job, spending most of our good waking hours tied to some stupid desk or what have you. When working 50 hour weeks to make ends meet a year can slip by before you know it. The monotony and what I attribute to the "groundhog day" phenomenon in which every day seems like the previous.

Before you know it you are 40 and wondering where the hell your life went. This is why it is so important to stop and smell the flowers as often as possible

reply to post by semperfortis


YES its only constant becouse we DIE...

god people can be so simple...

When you are four, one year is one fourth of your entire life.

When you are ten, one year is one tenth of your entire life.

When you are fifty, one year is only a fiftieth of your life.

At eighty, who gives a ratsass. They pass like sticks in a picket fence.

reply to post by drock905


I reckon your perception of time that has passed is proportional to what you can remember about the past. When you are young you can remember a great deal, so in order for all of your memories to have occurred a great deal of time must have passed. As you get older, you remember less and less, so the perceived time that has passed also reduces. Ultimately it creates the illusion that time is speeding up.

Don't bother trying to prove me wrong, it's merely my opinion.

Hi.

I think that time seems to pass slower when you are young because,when you are young,you look forward to events like christmas,birthdays,holidays etc,and the more you look forward to them,the longer they take to come around!
When you have grown up,you no longer spend as much time thinking about these things(with maybe the exception of holidays) as much,thus,before you know it,these events have arrived!

Thats my theory anyway.

reply to post by drock905


I think it is simply a case of having a busier life.

When you are young you do not have to work, pay bills, drive places, help family, cook dinner and clean up etc.

We get caught up in the day to day chores and forget the time.

I do not think there is a big huge explanation to it. Sometimes people look into things too much.

i dont think its time that really speeds up, (well logically its impossible) but rather we become less aware of things happening. when we're young our brains are still developing and are minds are as active as ever and taking everything in, and as we get used to it, we become somewhat oblivious to the things we used to take note of; hence the feeling of time moving faster. its sad in a way but you can make the most of it by just living for the moment. being impulsive. (insert inspirational sentence here).
anyway.
thats my 2c

but as Einstein once said:
time is nothing but a stubborn illusion.

[edit on 17-1-2009 by stevo351]

The more settled we get in a life routine, the less interesting life becomes. as you probably have read in the prior posts, when we were young everything was fresh and new. as we grow up time seems to speed up because we stop experiencing novelty or newness. Life becomes more predictable and dull for most people. It is like they go through the same daily/weekly/program over and over again. Without experiencing/learning something new, not only does time seem to speed up but, I feel that our bodies start to physically die.

I feel that it is key to constantly be learning something new, change locations, meet new people, change excersise routines, diets, careers, etc. Keep life interesting. Its all about what is fresh and new. That is where the life is.

If we take a look at the internet as an example and Google search engine in particular. When ever you do a search in Google, Google searches through its index and gives you the most relevant results. What qualifies as a relevant result? Well its basically content that is fresh, new and visited often. For example blogs which are updated daily and that have a large audience will show up at the top of Google search results and a non-updated static website will show up last. And what keeps people coming to your website? New fresh content/info/experience! Novelty is the key.

Take care!

reply to post by cluckerspud


good video as the video is basically saying that...

the older women was '19sec over', meaning once she reached 1minute from counting out loud, a REAL WORLD 1min19seconds had passed on his stop watch. hence REAL WORLD TIME goes by FASTER for her.

and the opposite happened for the younger people as the girl around 1:06 into the video he said to her she was '10seconds under', meaning when she reached 1 minute counting out loud only 50seconds REAL WORLD TIME on his stop watch had passed. hence, REAL WORLD TIME goes by slower for her.

which helps explain that "as you get older time seems to go by faster" which i to think happens. cause back when i was in school time used to DRAG... but now that im 29, it seems like weeks fly by in the blink of a eye.

p.s. it took me a while to figure that out cause initially in the video you think the opposite is happening the way he says it etc etc.... but when i thought about it then i came to the conclusion i said above

Time is the function of thinking, that is, the way we perceive things. Slowing or speeding up time relates to our ability to process data. When you are young you have much higher intensity of perception, as you age you slow down.

Also, since you have experienced most of the things that happen, you tend to skip them, this equals to boredom; but young people are hungry for experience and it is very intense for them. When you are experienced, your reaction to the already experienced situations is immediate, you don't even process data, you act immediately. This means that you suspend time in favor of acting instead of reflecting.

On the other hand, when you are old and face new situation, you may be very slow to learn (like learning new technologies, how to use computers and gadgets for instance). I think in this respect it's physiological slowing down. Weariness.

Also, when you play an interesting video game, time seems to pass very fast

It's because game play is totally unrelated to the rest of events and you lose sight of them. It's like being asleep, there is no perception of time when you sleep.

Its just like how SIZE changes too!

I visited my elementary school a couple years ago and I could almost touch both walls in the hall! I remember when that place seemed HUGE!
Same thing with my high school, though to a lesser extent. Im sure once Im out of college it will seem insignificant too!

I do think that people age differently though. When I was 16 adults would hit on my 16 year old friends, and it kind of bothered me. They looked so young. Maybe because when the adults were 16, 16 year olds appeared as 18 year olds do now, if you get what I mean. So they dont see it as wrong because of age. Kids do act sluttier today as well... they seem to grow up really fast

***warning: 2012 implications ahead****

...i followed nightskye's link from page one of this thread, and through a series of synchronicities, i have found what i feel is a profound answer to the OP's question.

This part, called the Iron Age, is the Age in which we live. This is also why, in the Iron Age, each second feels shorter than the second before. This is why each day, each month and year appear to be going faster than they did previously. In the topology of time this effect can be easily understood and explained.

jay weidner - topology of time



i am not certain that i agree with mr. weidner's explanation of the geometry of the universe, but the similarities of his model to my own are astounding. the first image is taken from mr. weidner's website. the following is my own drawing from this thread: "Time: how past and future interact".





...naturally, anyone that sees things the same way *I* do is correct.

It's down to the way memory works - most brains only put into memory those items that are new and prefer to add new items to the older memories already memorized.

For example, the first time you visit a restaurant your brain fixes into place (memorizes) the relatively constant elements like the chairs, tables and decorations and then memorizes (adds-in) the non-constant, non-fixed items as extra data related to the restaurant. From then on, every time you re-visit that same restaurant, your brain recalls the constant details then factors in the newer details such as people, strange sounds (like screaming when a chef stabs a waitress), odors, the length of the visit and seating arrangements i.e for most people, the brain memorizes constants, factors in variables then updates those variables when the constants are re-visited.

For that reason, as we age, we memorize fewer and fewer bits of information because we have fewer and fewer entirely new and strange encounters. However....

...As for the perception of time during an event, the more enjoyable it is, the more we're likely to be thinking (and active) during it, so the less long it seems to last; and for the perception of time leading upto an event, the less appealing that event, the more likely we are to dwell on it and so the less long it appears to take to reach it. When we recall to account for the durations of those events, generally, neither will seem to be longer than the other unless one is based on the recall of entirely new events and the other is based on the recall of mostly old elements. Effectively, like and like will, when recalled, be perceived as having being endured for equal measures of time.

If you find it difficult to relate to the above, consider this:

When studying a new subject, it becomes easier and easier to memorize and recall the knowledge learned. The more you know of the subject, the easier it becomes to add to that knowledge and the easier it is to trigger recall of that knowledge through association with other knowledge related or not related to that subject. The brain likes to latch (relate) new items onto old items. Why the brain likes to work this way I do not know but the process is the same as explained above and probably has something to do with finite capacity and facilitated recall.

If you want to know (really want to know) how the brain measures time then take a look at this article here in Cosmos

[edit on 17/1/09 by Rapacity]

I once heard this explanation. As you age the ratio between the time lapse (for example an hour) and your total life becomes smaller and smaller. You sort of get used to the passing of time. I like this explanation and think it is right.

I think it has to do with rates of gratification.

When you're a kid you seek gratification from birthdays, Summer vacation, Christmas etc...

Most of what kids look forward to are annual. A slower, longer cycle.

Most adults look forward to pay day and seek gratification from things not happening. Like the car not breaking down or the IRS not sending you a letter or you credit card not getting stolen or not getting pulled over.

Then the adult has children and everyday the kid doesnt kill itself doing something stupid or the older kid doesnt get arrested is a good day.

Once you get to be a certain age gratification comes almost constantly in the form of "I didnt have a heart attack" I dont have cancer" "I'm still alive" etc...

These gratification cycles have a great impact on your memory and I think contribute greatly to how you perceive the rate of time.

reply to post by drock905


I have noticed this effect also. I'm 55 this year, and it seems like the days of childhood years went by very slowly, and the older I get, the faster they go by. But there is something else not mentioned yet. Remember the Tsunami? It sure seemed to me that after that, time did in fact speed up. We had to reset our clocks multiple times right after this event, even the electric ones. I think it's possible that the Reath slipped on it's axis a bit during the event, thus speeding up time. Could it be the first of three slips of the famous Pole Shift? Anyone have any tech on this?

Maybe, its because due to technology and things, we get bored so easily.

IE, 50years ago tv was amazing, but today its just a normal thing. Our lives are so busy we forget to see the things that used to impress us in life.

Everything is more complicated so while you are trying to figure out one problem to do with how to fix your computer, another problem arises. Because time has moved on your didnt seem to have these problems earlier on in life, and now you are trying to balance a million different things and you become unaware of the time that is passing by..?

Just a thought.

For me time is going faster because of all the things I have to do now that I didn't do when I was a kid.

Example:
12 years old-- 6:00 a.m...Get up, get dressed, eat, grab book bag, go to school, be bored to death, get on bus, go home, change clothes, ride horse, feed horse, feed dog, do homework, take bath, eat, sleep. Repeat. If it rained on the weekend, I couldn't ride horses and I was borrrred.

Now--Get up at 4:15 a.m.. Let dogs out, feed horses, change clothes, make coffee and breakfast, put lunch in bag, drive to bus stop, get on bus, read book, off bus to train, off train to work, work, train, bus, drive home, feed horses, let out dogs, feed dogs, cleaning/repairs/yard work/cooking/trash out/ grocery store, get mail, pay bills, read email, read news, ATS, dog forum, You Tube, take bath, get dressed, find clothes for next day, 10:00 p.m., pass out in bed. Then there is the weekend for washing the truck, cleaning the garage, fixing the fence, painting the well house, weeding the flower beds....

Now that I'm an adult, it's AMAZING how much stuff my dad must have been doing while I was at school, but when I got home all I saw was him sitting there drinking coffee.