Why Does Time Fly as You Get Older?

You might have felt the time passes more quickly as you get older, but why we feel like that?

Hosted by: Brit Garner
----------
----------
Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters:
Lazarus G, Sam Lutfi, Nicholas Smith, D.A. Noe, alexander wadsworth, سلطا الخليفي, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Bader AlGhamdi, James Harshaw, Patrick D. Ashmore, Candy, Tim Curwick, charles george, Saul, Mark Terrio-Cameron, Viraansh Bhanushali, Kevin Bealer, Philippe von Bergen, Chris Peters, Justin Lentz
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
----------

Sources:

[shlatekkin]

I always figured it's because kids live in the moment while adults live waiting for something. Waiting for the weekend, vacation, appointment, birthday, etc... Because adults are always waiting for something, time is always on their mind.

[undersiege]

age 18 - your free trial has ended to continue with full experience you will need to choose a service pack

[tncorgi]

I'm 54, and can confirm that months and years seem to go by more quickly with age. For example it seems like we were just in late winter and suddenly I realize it's almost July. One other odd thing is that songs on the radio all seem to have faster tempo than I remember. Though I know some radio stations actually do compress music so they can fit in more ads. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go chase some kids off my lawn.

[BikesDrones]

A man had been told he had two months to live. When asked what he wanted to do, he replied "move in with my mother in law, it would be the longest two months of my life" ;>)

[klondike]

Ever notice how the same journey seems shorter after the first time you make it? Maybe there's a connection.

[CamaroAmx]

I think it’s a combination of several things.

1: as a child you haven’t lived as long so a year is a larger percentage of your life.

2: you had more stimuli when you’re young because more things are new to you, so your brain processes the experiences slower to understand it better. The older you get, the less new and amazing things you experience so your brain just breezes through the info it receives, like when you’re reading a book you read many times before. You already kinda know what’s gonna happen next, so you more or less end up subconsciously skimming through the book. Even if you do new things that are fun, it’s never quite as much fun as experiencing new things as a child because no matter what there is still more familiarity with the situation because of past experience. You had nothing to very little to base new experiences on as a child.

3: you produce less of your bodies chemicals as you get older so your not as stimulated chemically as you used to be and on a subconscious level, you’re running on autopilot.

4: as a child you have a long life ahead of you so you live more in the moment, without much thought to the future. You take your time to live your life at whatever pace you feel like, dwelling on more of the everyday stuff. As you get older, you know you’re getting nearer to the end, so you start to try to cram more into each day before you run out of time. Doing more things (especially productive stuff) makes you miss the details that you noticed in childhood.

5: as a child there is little to distract you from the world. You have all time to learn new things, make more mistakes, ect. When you’re older, you spend more time worrying about things like work or not messing up a relationship or work. Work also takes up far more of your day, leaving less time for other things it also adds stress to your life, where as a child work (chores) took up far less of your day.

6: the amount the world changes over your lifetime. If you lived in a time period were things like technology, standard of living ect stayed relatively the same, time will seem slower (same old same old feeling). For Most people around today, a lot has changed and continues to change in drastic amounts. As one person said, when they were young there was no video games, computers, cable ect. Now life revolves around computers far more powerful then the wildest imaginations of people 40 years ago. stuff from science fiction 40 years ago now seems archaic compared to what we have now because technology has moved so fast. Remember we went from riding horses in the Wild West to landing on the moon in less then a single lifetime. Now just think of the amount of technology we have now compared to 50 years ago.

All of these things work in combination to make life seem to go by faster as you get older. Plus it’s a lot of the reason we look back on our younger days with more fondness then say last Tuesday. It fuels nostalgia and in a way a yearning to get a little of “old days” back in the form of collecting stuff from the past (your own or even before your lifetime) or even just keeping a little something from your childhood and even staying in contact (like going to class reunions) with others that were around you as a child (like old friends) or even people near your age.

[ssss-dfqz]

I'm 40 and sometimes stop to think about how many years have passed. I've literally done nothing different in the last 10 years - been single, working, just getting on, you know?

Only recently have I felt some despair at how easily a decade can be missed and all I can say to anyone under 30 is be mindful of this inevitability.

The only thing that seemingly eases the dread of getting older is to have people you care about with you for the ride.

[NayOnFrames]

I think the Dopamine Theory is into something. If anything gives you a sensation of being more interesting than usual, you'll pay attention on more details about it, retaining more details/information opens more opportunities to self-improvement/change which gives you an impression of having lived more/longer throughout that period. As if the brain interpreted new information/changes as units of measurement of time.

[Master_Therion]

Time perception is relative. That's why time goes so slowly when I'm visiting my relatives.

[invsink]

Because when ur 16 you live in the moment
And when your 26 you live for the next pay day

[ufosrus]

My own hypothesis is that since we know we're coming to the end of our lives, time becomes more precious.

[sebastianelytron]

Have a good time, the clock moves faster. Have a bad time, the clock slows down. The trick is to not have a clock around to see you having a good time.

[Master_Therion]

What does the clock do when it's hungry? It goes back four seconds.

[RealFremikx]

The past few weeks for me have gone by really quickly, but I just realized how I’m on my phone and doing things and worrying about things. Now I can enjoy activities and be on my phone less often! Thanks!

[lindenbree]

I wonder if the internet will change how this generation views the passage of time when they're older. We tend to have less patience and brand new memes get old within a week. With everything being outdated in an instant, I wonder how millennials will see time in their old age

[riverogue]

Bruh this vid is relatable af I’m 15 and it feels like it wasn’t long ago that I was 13 but when I was say 7 two years felt like a rlly long time I’ve been thinking abt this a lot lately bc I’m scared abt graduating high school and going to college and my hopes of starting a family not working out

[BanditRider]

Feels like the other day it was 2013 so insane

[commanderwaddles]

I miss the elementary school days of genuine friendships & carefree fun & judgement free love & voluntary, happy loyalty

[SSJZak]

Who else wishes time flies when your bored but time is slow when youre having fun?

[mikerphone.]

Time flies like like an arrow,
fruit flies like a banana.