Have you ever wondered why, back in the day, it felt like forever until the Lunar New Year, but now, it seems like just a moment ago we were at the start of the year and now we’re already halfway through? Time truly flies faster than a whirlwind…
The brilliant scientist Albert Einstein stated that time is relative. Time doesn’t always pass at the same speed. In fact, one hour can feel like a fleeting moment or an eternity.
From another perspective, the speed of time depends on what we are doing. Spending an hour enjoying a performance by your favorite singer is nothing like spending an hour waiting in line for administrative procedures.
- In the first case, time seems to fly.
- In the second case, time appears to stand still.
One undeniable truth is that when we are children, time seems endless; we wait forever for the Lunar New Year or our birthdays…
However, as we grow older, time seems to pass at a dizzying speed. You may be astonished to realize that just a moment ago, it was the start of the year, and now we’re already halfway through it. The Lunar New Year is just around the corner…
This subjective increase in time perception with age has been clearly noted by psychologists, but there is no consensus on its cause.
So, what makes you feel like time passes more quickly as we age?
As we grow older, time seems to pass at a dizzying speed.
To explain this, let’s explore the “timeline formula” proposed by technology expert Maximilian Kiener, based on the insights of philosopher Paul Janet.
According to this, for a one-year-old child, one year feels like their entire lifetime. For a ten-year-old, one year is just 10% of their life – they still eagerly await their birthdays, but the wait feels shorter.
When you are 50 years old, one year is just 2% of your life.
By the age of 20, one year accounts for about 5% of one’s life. And when you reach 50, that figure drops to just 2%.
This proportional perception means we experience each time span differently, despite their equal lengths. Thus, the differences between ages 5 to 10, 10 to 20, 20 to 40, and 40 to 80 feel the same. Simply put, the five years you experience from ages 5 to 10 feel as long as the time from age 40 to 80.
That’s why you feel time passing at an “astonishing” rate.
Does time pass quickly due to changes in our internal biological clock?
From a scientific perspective, what causes us to feel that time flies by like “a dog running across a field”?
There are several theories, one of which is the change in our internal biological clock.
As we grow older, our metabolic processes slow down, while the biological rhythms of children are faster, leading to a quicker heartbeat and breath in a fixed time span.
This makes children feel like they’ve done so much yet their birthday or the Lunar New Year still hasn’t arrived…
Additionally, another theory suggests that we perceive the passage of time based on the amount of information we process.
We perceive the passage of time based on the amount of information we process.
With new stimuli, our brains require time to process information, which means we feel time passing more slowly.
Conversely, as we age, we become familiar with our surroundings, leading our brains to spend less time analyzing information, and thus we feel time passing more quickly.
In contrast, when we are young, the world is a vast, colorful sky filled with new experiences. Therefore, our brains need to analyze the surroundings, causing the sensation of time passing slowly.
However, regardless of the reasons, one undeniable truth remains: time passes swiftly and cannot be reclaimed, whether you want it or not. Therefore, always live joyfully and pursue what you desire! Because time will surely continue to fly by faster each day.
