The idea that time flies faster as you age is a commonly held truism and has been upheld by research. But several new studies highlighted in the BPS Research Digest blog indicate otherwise:
Age accounted for four per cent of the variance in how quickly participants said the last ten years had passed and just one per cent of the perception of time’s speed in general. By contrast, how busy and rushed people reported feeling accounted for ten per cent of the variance in subjective speed of time. Consistent with this, women reported feeling more rushed than men, on average, and they perceived time to go by more quickly.
Quite why the idea that time speeds up with age is so widely believed requires further study.
The authors of the study, William Friedman and Steve Janssen, said ‘The answers to these questions may shed light on a topic that has engaged philosophers and psychologists for more than 100 years.’
Does time seem to move faster for you as you age? Why do you think this phenomenon is so widely believed to be true (especially considering it may be completely false)?
Hat-tip to The Daily Dish.
This is such an interesting post/thread. I agree with many of the comments already posted – i.e. it’s relevant to the speed of our time in history, the way we reflect on time, how busy we feel, how much attention we pay re: time, etc. Thanks for opening this discussion!
I agree with Al and will add an additional piece. We often have markers that allow time to sneak up on us. For example, a child in fourth grade is half way to college. A typical 4th grader is about 9 years old and a typical college freshman is 18 or 19. But having spent only 4 years in primary school college most parent would not say their child is half way to college. Then BINGO. They are gone!!! OMG it was like the blink of an eye – or a short nap for others.
Then there is the pace of developmental changes and emotional maturation. Our oldest was home sick her entire freshman year. Her University was 50 miles away. Four years later she is living and working in Korea. How did that happen in just four years?
My grandmother used to comment on how time changes with age and we had that discussion before anyone landed on the moon. Maybe it is just that the older we get, the less we pay attention to time. Then when we reflect is seems to have gone by so fast.
I’ve always thought it was a simple matter of mathematics. When you age 10 years from age 10 to 20, it represents half of your life so far; half of all you’ve experienced. When you age 10 years from age 40 to 50, it only represents 20% of your life experience, so the 10 years feels like less time to you in the frame of all you’ve experienced. It’s sort of a case of relativity.
I think time is relevant to the speed of our time in history. Everything is fast and all the time going faster. No wonder it seems that time is moving faster. People born and raised with the speed of the internet will see time pass much faster than those of us raised when things happened at a slower pace. I think the speed with which we are all required to proceed does not give anyone time to reflect on the world around us.
Interesting topic that has recieved much attention, scientific and otherwise. An irreverent observation: I remember reading a Peanuts cartoon, where Charlie Brown reported that his grandpa said “when you get over the hill, you pick up speed.”
I think Bill gives us a hint by the category this post is under — “Cult of Adulthood.”