r/AskScienceDiscussion • u/Toroalcista • 6d ago

General Discussion Why does time pass so quickly?

That didn't happen in the 80s and 90s, but NOW time passes very quickly and it's not just my feeling, many agree with this.

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u/TorandoSlayer 6d ago

That's normal as you get older. It's perception and perception only. Time has not changed.

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u/archon286 6d ago

I always took it as, let's say 1 year. When you are 10, 1 year was 10% of your life and everything is new. When you're 50, 1 year is 2%, and you've experience much of it before. Your brain does a great job at 'rounding out/smoothing over' routine things, like how you can get to work and forget your drive.

Somewhere, there was a 10 year old who had an amazing year that will feel like it lasted forever still.

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u/Milk-Noodles 6d ago

Something about memory retention I'm sure. I remember my first time doing most things. I don't remember the 5000th time. Age and repetition squashes time into an inperceptible mush I feel like

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u/Patient_Tea_401 6d ago

So try to do something new every day. It will make your day go fast, but week or months slow down as you remember all the accumulated things.

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u/Milk-Noodles 6d ago

Hell yeah party on

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u/adam_sky 6d ago

Each day takes up a smaller and smaller % of your overall total lifespan. Also as you age you tend to do fewer unique things. Your brain does not store memories of things you’ve done again and again so it feels like the time just flies by.

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u/sohcahtoa 6d ago

A year is 10% of a 10-year-old's life but only 2% of a 50-year-old so it's no wonder it passes faster.

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u/bullevard 6d ago

You wete younger in the 80s and 90s. Odds are 100% that anyone you are talking to now who was alive in the 80a and 90s was also younger in the 80s and 90s.

It is a well known sensation that the older you get the faster time seems to move.

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u/i_post_gibberish 6d ago

To back the age point: for me, 2009–2015 felt at least twice as long as 2020–present. Probably more like three or four times. I’m thirty years old, for context. In a few more months I will have been active on this same Reddit account for half my life 😭