Do you think people experience time faster as they get older?

[Harlequin]

A lot of old people will tell you that your life will go by so fast. While I do experience years as slower than when I was a kid, I feel like they stopped coming slower around high school. Coovid changed my perception of time a lot.

I think it's possible that life doesn't go by faster, it just is that people work so much, so they have less life to live per year as adults. It may also be that it has to do with the slower reaction time and processing speed as you age. Your reaction time begins lowering as soon as you reach adulthood and your processing speed begins lowering around 30. Basically, when your processing speed lowers, you are parsing your lived experience into less snapshots, so it feels like life is going faster even though you're going slower. This is why the Flash and other speedsters are portrayed as experiencing the world go by extremely slowly.

In science fiction and worldbuilding, you often hear of ancient supercomputers or simulated realities which are able to simulate infinity in a finite time by running the experience of time differently in the simulation. In real life, however, there is likely a hard limit to this, because there is a hard lower limit to time units, temperature, etc etc. Kant says that time is a priori sensation, but it's not the same everywhere and for everyone.

 

[Tsar]

When you are young, say 10 years old, one year is 10% of the total life you’ve lived. If you’re 50, one year is 2% of your lifetime. In that one year as a child you’ve gone through so much more than a man in his 50s. Experiences as a child are more fresh compared to an old man who has “been there, done that.”

 

[Weebhunter3000]

My guess is as kids we have more to look forward to which makes time feel slow. As an adult you’re mostly going through the motions of life.

 

[Harlequin]

When you are young, say 10 years old, one year is 10% of the total life you’ve lived. If you’re 50, one year is 2% of your lifetime. In that one year as a child you’ve gone through so much more than a man in his 50s. Experiences as a child are more fresh compared to an old man who has “been there, done that.”

Schopenhauer talks about this. The problem with growing up is that the euphoria of experiencing new forms is no longer able to counter the anguish of watching everything wither and dilapidate

 

[ejreorjer]

Schopenhauer talks about this. The problem with growing up is that the euphoria of experiencing new forms is no longer able to counter the anguish of watching everything wither and dilapidate

I think this is mostly true but you can maintain some level of childhood joy and curiosity, you just have to an effort to not fall into cynicism, and it gets harder as you age.

 

[1Based Frog1]

A lot of old people will tell you that your life will go by so fast. While I do experience years as slower than when I was a kid, I feel like they stopped coming slower around high school. Coovid changed my perception of time a lot.

I think it's possible that life doesn't go by faster, it just is that people work so much, so they have less life to live per year as adults. It may also be that it has to do with the slower reaction time and processing speed as you age. Your reaction time begins lowering as soon as you reach adulthood and your processing speed begins lowering around 30. Basically, when your processing speed lowers, you are parsing your lived experience into less snapshots, so it feels like life is going faster even though you're going slower. This is why the Flash and other speedsters are portrayed as experiencing the world go by extremely slowly.

In science fiction and worldbuilding, you often hear of ancient supercomputers or simulated realities which are able to simulate infinity in a finite time by running the experience of time differently in the simulation. In real life, however, there is likely a hard limit to this, because there is a hard lower limit to time units, temperature, etc etc. Kant says that time is a priori sensation, but it's not the same everywhere and for everyone.

COVID was a weird case study in time perception because it disrupted routines. Some people felt time drag on endlessly, others felt like 2020-2021 just vanished. A year spent inside watching Netflix is a year that your brain registers as almost nothing.

 

[panchito]

COVID was a weird case study in time perception because it disrupted routines. Some people felt time drag on endlessly, others felt like 2020-2021 just vanished. A year spent inside watching Netflix is a year that your brain registers as almost nothing.

it was the opposite of me
i registered most of the quarantine because it was fun and i was enjoying myself
now i can't remember what i ate an hour ago or what a nigger told me in work because i can't afford to care

 

[Digital Cheese]

Quite honestly, it seems more like the reason people think life goes faster is due to them simply being more busy. If you're working many hours daily, life will feel like it goes way faster than it does for a 12 year old who has no job, at most is responsible for basic chores and school, etc. Unironically, getting over 120k hours of your overall life back is the best justification for being a perma-NEET. Never be a wagie, live well enough to live to your 100s (preferably 120+), and have like 20 kids who do the same, you can maximize your lifespan this way and also slow down aging to a small extent this way o algo. Idk how it works mentally, I'd presume you would last longer mentally as well though.