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On the Perception of the Passing of Time as We Age
As a kid I recall adults – my parents, my grandparents, others – every now and then talk and complain about how time flies by or some similar sentiment. When they made these statements and complaints, they weren’t talking about how quickly their workday went by or how rapidly tonight’s dinner party came and went. Instead, the context of these statements generally referred to longer time frames – how quickly the last week or the last month or six months flew by.
At the time, I didn’t really understand what they were talking about and I figured it was just something adults said. And, although it is something adults say, there is a certain truth to it. I’m in my sixties now, and I understand what those adults were talking about. I’ve understood it for a while now – I don’t know when I first experienced this phenomenon – I imagine I was around 30 years of age. As far as I know, this is a common occurrence – at some point in time most of us (all of us?) experience this perception of the speeding up of time as we age.
Of course, time doesn’t actually speed up as we age. The passing of one minute, one hour, or one day is the same for a 16-year-old as for a 60-year-old, and each would agree on the amount of time elapsed. However, after the passing of some amount of time, the time will seem to have elapsed quicker to the 60-year-old than to the 16-year-old. I don’t know why that is. I never studied psychology, neuroscience, or any discipline that might touch upon the subject. That, however, hasn’t deterred me from hypothesizing on why this is so. I have two theories about this which I wish to present and see what others may think.
Theory #1: This theory is based on the differences in life experiences of children versus their elders. There are two aspects to this theory. First is the fact that as children we learn and experience new things every day and we are aware that many of these experiences are necessary hurdles on the road to adulthood and so greatly matter. Of course, people don’t stop learning things or having new experiences (including those that greatly matter) once they become adults and that leads to the second aspect of this theory which is the emotional nature of childhood. Experiences and feelings are much more intense when we are young and thus mean more and stay with us longer. Therefore, experiences which in adulthood will be viewed as the normal ebb and flow of life take on an urgent and catastrophic nature in childhood. I suppose this is somewhat similar in a much, much subtler fashion to the slowing down of things one experiences in a sudden potential life-threatening event such as a serious car crash.
Well, that’s Theory #1 and if you don’t like it, I’ve got another one for ya.
Theory #2: I gave this one a name – The Apparent Compression of Memory Theory. It works thusly. Let us say that Bob has just completed his first month as a 16-year-old. He now has another month of memories to be stored wherever memories get stored. This new month of memories is just one out of the now 193 months of memories Bob has accumulated. Moving forward and nearly doubling Bob’s age, Bob has now just come to the end of his first month as a 32-year-old and has another month of memories for storage. This new batch of memories is now only one out of 385. At age 64 and one month, Bob has another new month of memories which are only one out of 769. Every day we age, our new memories are an increasingly smaller percentage of our entire history and thus appear to be less than they actually are. If they appear less to us it must also mean that the time elapsed will also seem less to us. Exacerbating this phenomenon is the fact that there are many early memories which stay with us as we age which should also tend to “compress” our present experiencing of time. This second theory also requires that as we age this perception of time passing quicker must also continue to grow. Is that the case? I don’t know.
Well, if you’ve read along you’ve probably figured out that I don’t really know what I’m talking about. You’re probably right; but, those are my theories and I am sticking to them for now. However, perhaps you’re in a field in which you’ve studied this subject, or you’re also an old coot who has theories about this. In either case, I’d love to hear what you think.
Published in General
I like theory #2.
I think I’ll always remember March 18, 2018. It was the day I developed the Apparent Compression of Memory Theory. Yeah, that was the day…
Theory 2 resonates with me. It might be emphasized by the novelty of those youthful experience, which gives them initial shelf space. Subsequent events which resemble previously shelved memories might be cleaned by some mental utility (do you really need them?). I recall so vividly the first day of school as the heavy oak door revealed that first classroom. My graduate school classrooms? They were kind of square with desks I think.
I never thought I would get so old so fast. Always thought they would have cure for it before I got old.
Time is like toilet paper . It goes faster towards the end of the roll.
My theory is that 1 year to a 2 year old is half his life. 1 year to a 30 year old is 1/30th.
To the 2 year old, it is so much larger because he has no perception of time beyond how old he is. To a 30 year old, 15 years feels the same as 1 year to the 2 year old. To the 60 year old, 30 years.
It’s hard to percieve time beyond what we have lived already. We can only view past time within the framework of how much time we have already lived.
I have my own strange time-paradox going on. I feel like my 2 year old has been with us for much much longer. There are memories that feel like they happened 5 years ago, but they didn’t. I call him my forever-baby. He’s small for his age and hits milestones late, but I really do feel like he’s been a baby forever. This is when time is supposed to speed up. I’m glad it’s going so slow.
I’m going with a variant (I think) of #1. It can be encapsulated in “Time passes quickly when you’re having fun.” As one ages, responsibilities and attendant worries lessen. You’ve pretty much gone where you’re going, and all of the anxiety about career and family decisions starts to fade away (for most people, hopefully). Those questions and anxieties tend to slow things down as one awaits their resolution. How can I pay for college? Why are Johnny and Jill not studying? Will I get that promotion? Do I have the money to retire? As these matters are resolved, things “lighten up.” Some weight is lifted, and weight can slow things down.
I agree with you on compression of memories.
Learning new things should not be a feature of getting older. At least a disinterest in learning is not.
I was 80 last birthday and I read about five books at the same time. I cheat a little because I listen to audiobooks in my car as I commute from Tucson to Phoenix twice a week. Right now, I am listening to Pat Buchanan’s “Nixon’s White House Wars” which is a pleasure even the second time.
I read in bed with my Kindle which is much easier to handle in bed. In the living room, to my wife’s despair, I have a pile of several books on the couch. One is Hanson’s book on “The Second World War,” which is organized in an interesting way. It is not chronological and I have read perhaps fifty books on the war. It is by subject.
The most recent to arrive is “In Search of the IndoEuropeans.”
It will be my second book on the topic. In addition, I am reviewing, or trying to review, college Physics and Calculus.
Anything to keep Alzheimers away. I am probably safe as my mother lived to 103 and never suffered from dementia. Still, one cannot be too careful.
I love that you posted on this and I hope someone can give us a scientific view! I like your Theory #2. For myself, I wonder if we cherish time more as we get older, because we realize we are on the shorter span of our lives. (I’m in my 60’s, too.) So I try to treasure my time, as each day goes by. It seems like either my husband or I say, every Friday, I can’t believe it’s Friday already! I think gratitude also plays a role, at least for me.
When I was about ten, there was a fad for doctor shows and films, usually low budget quickies, based on the success of “Dr. Kildare” and “Ben Casey”. One staple of these stories is the intensity of the internship year. At the beginning, we see a bunch of toughened young doctors turn the wards over to the untried, untested quirts who are one year younger. At the end of the movie, the friends we’ve gotten to know are finally the tough veterans, and the last shot is of yet another squad of rookies ready for their year of training. It gave me a clue that depending on what you’re doing, a year can seem like a lifetime.
College is like that. It’s intense, then it’s gone.
People who are sixty and up usually have goals, plans, everything we had when we were thirty, but a lot of the metaphorical time markers on the side of the road are gone. I changed a lot between the ages of 21 and 25 (for example). I don’t think I changed that much between 58 and 62. What happens, if you have children, is their lives supply your time markers: “Let’s see. That’s a year after my son moved to St. Louis…that’d be two years before his sister entered grad school…”
Thanks Susan. And, I also hope someone here has a scientific understanding of this.
Always happy to see Nixon get some respect. Speaking of books, you’re pretty damn good at writing them, too.
My thoughts,
When we are children, we are in a constant “wait for” posture. We wait for the mile stones of grade, privilege, drivers license, earnings, liberty, accomplishment, etc, etc, etc. Waiting and expectation of good things always seems longer than the actual expenditure of time. At some point we move into the maintenance of life mode. It then occurs to us we are mortal. Our time is finite. When we are late or short of time. Time seems to move at warp speed. The farther we go down the road of the shorter end of life, the faster it seems to come.
A lovely, quirky post on a fresh topic. Thank you.
I like your second idea. It reminds me of something I began noticing fairly frequently after I turned 50: all phone numbers, and a great many names, sound familiar. By the time you hit my age, you’ve heard so many of each that they begin to blur together.
And yes, I do think that’s the case with our sense of time passing. We notice what stands out, and fewer and fewer things stand out as we grow older, with the gaps between each memorable event growing farther apart.
If you write with ever decreasing punctuation, using ever longer sentences, then you get through the paragraph more quickly and with fewer pauses. Life might be like that.
(Also, I’m convinced that young brains simply run faster — their biological clock rate is higher. I don’t know when that really slows down, but I’m sure the scientists do.)
Mike – You should probably thank Gary as I’ve just ordered your medical history book.
Thanks Henry.
Could be Kevin. Thanks.
But can you remember your first phone number? Mine was IL7-2889. Maybe the exchange letters are a mnemonic. But I’m betting on Theory 2.
Of course. 561-5427.
(Except that, back then, we called it Jordan 1, 5427.)
Thanks.If you read the reviews, it is amusing that a couple of them are critical because I did not spend enough time on the Greeks like Galen. It was written for medical students who might be interested in Galen as history but he has nothing to do with modern medicine. Some chapters might be difficult for the non-physician but those are what make modern medicine tick. I was teaching students and could find no suitable book for them. There are lots of footnotes to the original papers. I did have short chapters on Chinese and Indian medicine, some of which is more important than Galen.
Working with students kept me relatively younger.
Now, I interview and examine applicants to the military. It accomplishes the same thing for me. I spend hours with kids 20 to 25 years old. It is refreshing. Last Friday, I talked to an Iraqi who was an interpreter for the Army in Iraq. He is now joining the Army and said he will go back now “as a soldier.” He is very proud.
Oh my gosh, the family phone # just came back–714-539-3691. Yikes!
I remember when all of Orange County was 714 and when all of LA was 213.My parents phone number in Chicago was Midway 7184 and after the fifth digit, Midway 3 7184. My aunt Peg’s was South Shore 7163.
Yep! We lived mostly in Garden Grove, and for brief times in Santa Ana, West Covina andWestminster
I hope golf does the same thing, but drinking beer while doing Physics and Calculus? Think I’ll stick to golf.
I remember some great Mexican restaurants in Santa Ana.
I’m also trying with mixed success to lose weight. I go to Jenny Craig every week to weigh in and get more frozen food. I kind of like the food and it makes it very easy for my wife.
I rarely have a beer anymore.
Lots of them in Tucson.
Droitwich 3022. Not only was it our first phone number, it was the only phone number in the vicinity. Neighbors used to come and use our phone when we were in the UK, because it was the only one around.
This.
My childhood home phone was 561-5027 or locust 5027
But can you remember what you had for dinner last night? Hmm..m.m.m.m?