Does time go quicker as you get older?

dlofnep · 17-04-2011 11:24PM #1

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 · 17-04-2011 11:25PM

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

Chris P. Bacon · 17-04-2011 11:27PM

I remember Y2K like it was yesterday.

dlofnep · 17-04-2011 11:28PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:29PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:30PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:30PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:31PM

Sc@recrow wrote: »

pervert

That's a bi-winning reply right there ^

stovelid · 17-04-2011 11:31PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:32PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:34PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:34PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:34PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:35PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:35PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:36PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:37PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:37PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:38PM

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

themadchef · 17-04-2011 11:40PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:45PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:53PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:53PM

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 · 17-04-2011 11:55PM

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

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 18-04-2011 12:01AM

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 · 18-04-2011 12:02AM

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 · 18-04-2011 12:04AM

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

itac · 18-04-2011 12:05AM

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 · 18-04-2011 12:05AM

Time goes faster, feelings dont change.

What naff song is that off?

Latchy · 18-04-2011 12:15AM

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 · 18-04-2011 12:17AM

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

Does time go quicker as you get older?

Comments