Does time go quicker as you get older?

dlofnep

I'm 28, and I feel like the past 10 years of my life have gone so quickly. It feels like yesterday when I drank my first legal pint. Now I'm bordering on the better side of 30. What happened?

The first 18 years of life drag on for ages, even in retrospect.. But 18-28 was done and dusted before I even knew it. I feel like I was abducted by aliens for at least 5 or 6 of them because I don't know where the last 10 years have gone! It's scary to think that in less than 12 years I'll be 40. People say life starts at 40. I think they're having the craic!

I noticed aswell, I start to get alot more sentimental about nostaglia. Like the sound of a cartoon can make me teary-eyed.

Anyone feel like their life is flying past them? Does life get quicker as you get older? Any old codgers in here?

Dudess

Most definitely. The fact 2005 is six years ago blows my mind...

Chris P. Bacon

I remember Y2K like it was yesterday.

dlofnep

Dudess wrote: »

Most definitely. The fact 2005 is six years ago blows my mind...

Did you notice all the kids that you saw as kids are now all grown up and in their early 20's? But for some weird reason, you still see them as 12 year olds?

rebel10

I'm glad i'm not the only one!
Had one of my T.Y. students googling what song was number 1 the day he was born, "Gangsta's Paradise"! That made me feel horrible.

Blazer

dlofnep wrote: »

Did you notice all the kids that you saw as kids are now all grown up and in their early 20's? But for some weird reason, you still see them as 12 year olds?

pervert

Dudess

Very much so. My "baby" cousin is 25. I was seven when she was born though, so I've never snapped out of that.

It's not fun, but no point getting depressed about it. No matter what age you are (apart from when you're in your 70s/80s) it will always be one you'll wish you could have back again in later years. When I was 25, I wished I was 21. Now I wish I was 26. I'm sure my 94-year-old grandmother would love to be a young one of 75 again. :pac:

dlofnep

Sc@recrow wrote: »

pervert

That's a bi-winning reply right there ^

stovelid

I think not only do you get busier but if you work full-time or have kids, your days tend to be more uniform and you also tend to analyse or mediate on your life less when older and as a result, time seems to go quicker.

Penitent man

dlofnep wrote: »

I'm 28, and I feel like the past 10 years of my life have gone so quickly. It feels like yesterday when I drank my first legal pint. Now I'm bordering on the better side of 30. What happened?

The first 18 years of life drag on for ages, even in retrospect.. But 18-28 was done and dusted before I even knew it. I feel like I was abducted by aliens for at least 5 or 6 of them because I don't know where the last 10 years have gone! It's scary to think that in less than 12 years I'll be 40. People say life starts at 40. I think they're having the craic!

I noticed aswell, I start to get alot more sentimental about nostaglia. Like the sound of a cartoon can make me teary-eyed.

Anyone feel like their life is flying past them? Does life get quicker as you get older? Any old codgers in here?

At least you've got 16,317 posts to prove you were around for the last seven years. What have i got?!....feck all! I can't remember any of it :eek:

dlofnep

Penitent man wrote: »

At least you've got 16,317 posts to prove you were around for the last seven years. What have i got?!....feck all! I can't remember any of it :eek:

A fair point.

You know, I bet there's some 70 year old on AH right now saying "dlofnep, you little shítehawk.. you're only a baby!"

adrian hyde

Don't worry. My da says when you retire it starts to slow down again.

It's like quoting your age. It starts off as "five - and a half." As if the 'half' matters. When you get past 18, you round it down until you hit old age. Then its "75 and a half." Suddenly the half is all important again.

Same with time. When you were young, a half hour was an eternity. Years went by slowly. Then you get all adult and suddenly the years fly by. As you get older, time slows down again. I reckon its a flaw in the space time thingy.

bonerm

No time goes at exactly the same rate, but indeed it seems to pass more quickly.

Not only does each successive year represent a smaller percentage of your total life up to that point (which has an effect on your perception) but as you go progress in life also do you spend an increasing amount of your day to day life 'occupied' with things. Just take an average job. It represents around 2000 hours of your year and perhaps another 250-500 hours commuting to/from it. Compare that to your first year of school where you probably spent around 750 hours a year in class and maybe hardly any time getting to it if you were local. That's just one aspect of your day and you can already see how your time is just getting eaten away.

Sephiroth_dude

dlofnep wrote: »

I'm 28, and I feel like the past 10 years of my life have gone so quickly. It feels like yesterday when I drank my first legal pint. Now I'm bordering on the better side of 30. What happened?

The first 18 years of life drag on for ages, even in retrospect.. But 18-28 was done and dusted before I even knew it. I feel like I was abducted by aliens for at least 5 or 6 of them because I don't know where the last 10 years have gone! It's scary to think that in less than 12 years I'll be 40. People say life starts at 40. I think they're having the craic!

I noticed aswell, I start to get alot more sentimental about nostaglia. Like the sound of a cartoon can make me teary-eyed.

Anyone feel like their life is flying past them? Does life get quicker as you get older? Any old codgers in here?

Yup it does,feels like only yesterday I was 13 and thinking what would be like to be 21 and now here I am 25 next wk

EmacB

Yep the older you get the quicker you think time goes by.

Think about it. When you were 4, a year was the same amount of time as a quarter of your life. But when you turn 80, that turns to 1/80th.

Its explained well here http://www.cracked.com/article_18708_5-reasons-immortality-would-be-worse-than-death_p2.html

And another link for the extreme nerds :P http://everything2.com/user/Professor%20Pi/writeups/Why%20time%20appears%20to%20speed%20up%20with%20age

Chris P. Bacon

dlofnep wrote: »

Did you notice all the kids that you saw as kids are now all grown up and in their early 20's? But for some weird reason, you still see them as 12 year olds?

I have a funny feeling i know you,you were about 3 years behind me in St Pauls,and you were a little fella if i recall.If i saw you now id probably still think your a little fella.

Canis Lupus

The rat race steals your life before you know it. I'm about to hit 30 and don't know where the last decade really went. I think it's important to take time out to do memorable things while you're at your peak.

dlofnep

Chris P. Bacon wrote: »

I have a funny feeling i know you,you were about 3 years behind me in St Pauls,and you were a little fella if i recall.If i saw you now id probably still think your a little fella.

You'd probably be right.

Bat Fasterd

It just gets faster as you get older OP. Its April already! What the hell happened to Jan, Feb and March!

themadchef

Every Summer the auld wan in the hotel i worked in would be chanting "dont be wishing you life away" when all the staff would be praying for the end of a busy Summer \ end to the torture.

I find myself chanting the same lines as her now.

Naikon

Meh, 30's is still pretty young. I am in my early 20's and would not consider anybody below 40 "old". Even then, the knowledge that accumulates by being older outweighs the relative strengths of being young. Would I want to be a teenager again? No, **** that ****. Thankfully for us men, age is almost a plus:pac: The only dowside to being older is stubble grows on my face far too fast now. No more peach fuzz.

OutlawPete

From me it does, the past twenty years have has zipped by. The 90's flashed by me after I left school and the whole hoopla of the millennium and Y2K stuff seems like only a few years back. For other personal reasons it all also does not seem to be over twenty years that have passed. Crazy to think that this time 20 years ago I was looking forward to Féile, Trip to Tipp.

When I was around 18 (1991) I really got into to listening to Bob Seger and used to listen to his stuff all the time, driving around with mates in my old man's car. Remember so clearly the line in one song: "Twenty years now, where'd they go, twenty years, I don't know.." and thinking to myself that no way would I ever feel like that, sure I'd be an old man then anyway.

Still love the song .. just it resonates more with me now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keIvA2wSPZc

foxinsox

dlofnep wrote: »

Any old codgers in here?

at first I was like *

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1220/3167057576_82521e2ca9_o.jpg

and now I'm like

http://www.coverdude.com/covers/now-thats-what-i-call-music-78-2011-front-cover-68094.jpg

So yeah time goes fast!

Sorry about long linky things, I don't know how to change them ..


* I do NOT own any of this music, I did have Now ..... 1 on vinyl, but it melted. Images purely for demonstrating how time flys! :-)

Dudess

Oh yeah, the fact 1999 was 12 years ago - ****in' hell! :eek:

epgc3fyqirnbsx

same age as you OP and just realised that it's 10 years since I did my leaving :eek:
And that all flew, I feel I'm still around college age cos I'm still trying to sort my life out

As a kid I lived in one place till 7, then another till 13, then another until 18 so my life seemed to be broken up into manageable sections and transitions. But the last ten years ahs just been one fast haze.
That said I've had a f*ckin amazing 10 years and hope the rest of them will be this good but I hope they slow down a bit

Maybe it's just because we think of time a little more now? Never did when we were kids, didn't even know how to read a clock most of tthe time and when we did we didn't care what it said

Reminds me of Floyd "And you run and you run to catch up to the sun but it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again, the sun is the same in a relative way but your older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death"

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

mickdw

I think it because each day that passes, a day becomes a smaller percentage of your life to date so a year is half of a 2 year olds life whereas its only a 1/50 of a 50 year olds life and so it becomes les significant.

Mr.Crinklewood

Time goes quicker when you have your trousers around your ankles and your boyfriends wife is coming up the stairs.

itac

It's like you read my mind dlofnep! Have no idea where time is going to so fast....but I'd appreciate it if it would slow down and let me enjoy some of my life...!

p.s. Thanks. Have been having a few jibes about what to do for my 30th and have been saying it's ages away yet....but all of a sudden 40 seems just as close....:D

Captain Darling

Time goes faster, feelings dont change.

What naff song is that off?

Latchy

Time does fly as you get older and I think 40 is that turning point ,when you're letting go of stuff to deal with other,more imposrtant stuff but with not the same time allowence or carefreeness as in you're 20s or 30s ...if that makes sense .

OutlawPete wrote: »

When I was around 18 (1991) I really got into to listening to Bob Seger and used to listen to his stuff all the time, driving around with mates in my old man's car. Remember so clearly the line in one song: "Twenty years now, where'd they go, twenty years, I don't know.." and thinking to myself that no way would I ever feel like that, sure I'd be an old man then anyway.

Still love the song .. just it resonates more with me now.

With me it was 10 years previous with the same artist and the Night Moves album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5WXmG4uH2A

admiralofthefleet

too right it does. i went 30 in febuary and the party i was at on new years eve feels like last week

bonzodog2

WHOOOSH! There goes another year. It gets worse.

Yahew

bonerm wrote: »

No time goes at exactly the same rate, but indeed it seems to pass more quickly.

Not only does each successive year represent a smaller percentage of your total life up to that point (which has an effect on your perception) but as you go progress in life also do you spend an increasing amount of your day to day life 'occupied' with things. Just take an average job. It represents around 2000 hours of your year and perhaps another 250-500 hours commuting to/from it. Compare that to your first year of school where you probably spent around 750 hours a year in class and maybe hardly any time getting to it if you were local. That's just one aspect of your day and you can already see how your time is just getting eaten away.

The way to slow down your life, then, is to do lots of different things ( and not commute). That works. Think about a 3 week holiday, or the first 3 weeks at an intense job, or course, compared to the mundane 3 weeks in an average job.

LETHAL LADY

OutlawPete wrote: »

From me it does, the past twenty years have has zipped by. The 90's flashed by me after I left school and the whole hoopla of the millennium and Y2K stuff seems like only a few years back. For other personal reasons it all also does not seem to be over twenty years that have passed. Crazy to think that this time 20 years ago I was looking forward to Féile, Trip to Tipp.

When I was around 18 (1991) I really got into to listening to Bob Seger and used to listen to his stuff all the time, driving around with mates in my old man's car. Remember so clearly the line in one song: "Twenty years now, where'd they go, twenty years, I don't know.." and thinking to myself that no way would I ever feel like that, sure I'd be an old man then anyway.

Still love the song .. just it resonates more with me now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keIvA2wSPZc

I remember the trip to tipp .

Stained Class

Well, at this stage, I know my children's ages more than my own!

I'm 42, & it took a few seconds before I could think of it.

I don't really think that my kids are my 'replacements'. Hell, I might live another 40 years.

I sometimes wonder what It's like for my parents though........

Dwellingdweller

jesus fuck I hope not. I want my life to be a big drawn-out affair. of the extramarital sort.

The two years work I did after college disappeared in the blink of an eye and I could only pick out a few memories from that time. A few good nights out, a couple of girls, some funny times in work and my beautiful beautiful car.
The 7/8 months since then feel alot longer and I've thousands of memories to look back on.. Alot of stuff has happened and alot of stuff has been done in that time.

I guess that's one big aspect of it.. The older you get, the more repetitive and less note-worthy stuff gets if you work/sleep/work/sleep. Makes me wonder about the best way to approach the whole "life" thing.. Stable income with a wife and kids or try to wander around the world on and off for the next 30 years.

Savage Tyrant

When you are 10 years old, waiting a full year for the next Christmas represents a very sizeable portion of your life. But when you're nearing 30 as I am too Dlofnep, then it's a much smaller portion and the perception you have of it.
I was just talking with a lad watching the Celtic match today and we ended up discussing mobile phones. One particular phone popped to mind and when I looked it up, it had been released in 2001. 10 years ago and it certainly doesn't feel that long.

Azureus

My mam always told me 'time flied the second you hit 21' and I agree with her! I think for me it was probably more 18 though, starting college, getting independent. Everythings just flown since then!
Ok so Im only 23 now, but went to capitol bar the other night and was just thinking that my current boyfriend used to get in there all the time and I never would because it was +21s and I was only 18/19. Now I go there regularly. Seems weird to think 4/5 years have passed when it feels like only a matter of months. Same with holidays;feel like my last one was recently but when I think about it it was april 09.

TeddyTedson

Azureus wrote: »

My mam always told me 'time flied the second you hit 21' and I agree with her! I think for me it was probably more 18 though, starting college, getting independent. Everythings just flown since then!
Ok so Im only 23 now, but went to capitol bar the other night and was just thinking that my current boyfriend used to get in there all the time and I never would because it was +21s and I was only 18/19. Now I go there regularly. Seems weird to think 4/5 years have passed when it feels like only a matter of months. Same with holidays;feel like my last one was recently but when I think about it it was april 09.

I could have posted that except im 24 and a man with penis.
Where is time going?

Claasman

TeddyTedson wrote: »

a man with penis.

Thanks for that info, we were all worried there for a second

Sinfonia

adrian hyde wrote: »

Don't worry. My da says when you retire it starts to slow down again.

bonerm wrote: »

Just take an average job. It represents around 2000 hours of your year and perhaps another 250-500 hours commuting to/from it.

You guys are making compelling arguments for me quitting my job today.
I probably won't though...
Maybe I'll watch Fight Club tonight and quit tomorrow

Azureus

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I could have posted that except im 24 and a man with penis.
Where is time going?

I dont know but I want it back. I say we start a petition for some kinda time refund scheme...
Or get a dolorean and have something to show for it.

Mr Benevolent

It's scary to think that in less than 12 years I'll be 40. People say life starts at 40. I think they're having the craic!

I noticed aswell, I start to get alot more sentimental about nostaglia. Like the sound of a cartoon can make me teary-eyed.

What the fuck? I'm 31 and nostalgia is 30 years away.

Poor Craythur

Dudess wrote: »

Most definitely. The fact 2005 is six years ago blows my mind...

2005 is the year that gets me too!

Poor Craythur

Naikon wrote: »

Thankfully for us men, age is almost a plus:pac:

That depends on how well you look after yourself. Any man thinking he's getting better with age whilst cultivating a nice ever-expanding beer gut or middle age spread is deluding himself! :pac:

kfallon

Poor Craythur wrote: »

That depends on how well you look after yourself. Any man thinking he's getting better with age whilst cultivating a nice ever-expanding beer gut or middle age spread is deluding himself! :pac:

But they are getting better......getting better at retaining alcohol :pac:

Time does fly, it's nearly 11 years since I moved out of home, seems like only 3 or 4!

nyarlothothep

The whole fractional argument about ones life, ie 1/25 of your life is faster than 1/5, if you can only recall, lets say for the sake of argument, about a years worth of memory across your life, and say when you were younger it was roughly the same or even less, then wouldn't the perception of time actually be the same? Whereas the reaction might be different, for example when you're 5 you have 20 years until your 25 whereas when you're 25 you have 25 years until your 50, therefore you become more aware of the precious time slipping away, like money, if you have loads you don't worry about spending it, whereas if you're less well off you're very conscious about how fast it goes.

Captain Darling

nyarlothothep wrote: »

The whole fractional argument about ones life, ie 1/25 of your life is faster than 1/5, if you can only recall, lets say for the sake of argument, about a years worth of memory across your life, and say when you were younger it was roughly the same or even less, then wouldn't the perception of time actually be the same? Whereas the reaction might be different, for example when you're 5 you have 20 years until your 25 whereas when you're 25 you have 25 years until your 50, therefore you become more aware of the precious time slipping away, like money, if you have loads you don't worry about spending it, whereas if you're less well off you're very conscious about how fast it goes.

Took me a while, but i think i got it.

Cú Giobach

Stained Class wrote: »

I'm 42, & it took a few seconds before I could think of it.

I'm "roughly" the same age and have to do a bit of quick mental arithmetic to remember my age too, only noticed it last year, the time is really starting to fly now


An interesting moment is when you realise you're closer to retirement than the leaving cert.

pragmatic1

Definitely OP. I'm the same age as yourself and its crazy how after about 21 the years just fly. Best way to get around it is to pack as much into each day as you can.

Another one that gets me is that the recession is about three years old at this stage.