Ever notice how, as a child, time passed so slowly? If you were hungry and you were told that dinner would be ready in fifteen more minutes the time seemed like an eternity. It wasn’t just during times when you were waiting for something. If you went to a friend’s house for a sleep-over, it felt like a week does now. Now a 2-hour movie seems like a breeze.
So has anyone ever done a study on the frame of reference of time and the age of an individual? What I’m looking for is why this effect occurs as a person ages.
Relativity. Time and gravity are related via intricate equations. As you know, when you get older, you put on weight and gain more mass. The more massive you are, the closer you must be travelling to light speed. Due to relativistic effects, everything around you appears to be happening faster.
You can demonstrate this by going on a diet. As you lose mass, the time until your next meal will seem increasingly long.
From a practical view: Time seems to pass us by faster as adults because:
(a) We have more obligations and less free time for the things we’re always putting off until tomorrow. before you know it, you’ve procrastinated so long that half the year’s passed you by!
(b) Less things really excite us as adults; less to look forward to. The hum-drum adult life causes one day to meld into the next unnoticed - until the days roll into weeks, and the weeks quickly pass into months, etc.
I have noticed that time slows down (even for adults) in certain situations:
-waiting in the airport for a plane
-waiting in the dentist’s office!
But the OP is quite right-I remember when a summer afternoon was an eternity!
I remember reading somewhere (New Scientist, Nature, I’m not sure) that this is a real phenomenon. It has to do with mean body temperature and how it affects our perception of time as children and adults. Sorry I don’t have more information.
I have heard a theory that time itself is speeding up so everyone is going through life at a faster rate - not that i subscribe to that theroy but though i’d throw that into the mix.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Jinx *
**From a practical view: Time seems to pass us by faster as adults because:
(a) We have more obligations and less free time for the things we’re always putting off until tomorrow. before you know it, you’ve procrastinated so long that half the year’s passed you by!
I disagree.
Even in the last few years I’ve noticed that a day passes faster. I have fewer obligations now that I did a few years back. I also know that, no matter how much I’m looking forward to getting to my grandmother’s house, it doesn’t take as long to get there as it did when I was a kid.
I think partly it’s got to do with energy levels? It was so much harder to sit still when I was little. Now I can sit for hours I don’t need constant amusement like I did when I was small, therefore I don’t get bored as much as I did when I was small, therefore time doesn’t seem to drag as much.
But I still think the first theory (smaller percentage of life) is the best one. When I was a child a year took forever to pass - it was still an uncommon event. Now that so many years have passed, it’s not such a big deal. I figure it’s the same principal that makes it take longer to get someplace for the first time than it does to return from it.
I once read a SciFi book (I think it was one of the Skylark Series by E.E. Smith), in which one of the characters said something like “Subjective time is measured by the number of learning experiences”.
I don’t know if this was simply made up, or was based on an actual theory but it seems reasonable to me.
When you are a small child, everything is new and unknown so everything must be newly processed and incorporated into your store of knowledge. This takes extra processing (subjective time).
When you are older, you see/do many of the same things that you have seen/done before, so no new learning is required and you can “coast” on your old knowledge.
This also explains why, the first time you undertake a new journey (say to a new job or whatever) it seems to take longer than when you are used to the trip. And why return journeys always seem to be shorter than the outward one.
It contains some link which includes one on the body temperature theory Dr Lao mentioned. It’s quite fascinating, actually. Although I’m still in the camp that believe it’s a relativity thing, as cazzle originally stated. But the body temp theory is fascinating and compelling, nonetheless.
I don’t need constant amusement like I did when I was small, therefore I don’t get bored as much as I did when I was small, therefore time doesn’t seem to drag as much.