Time and Aging | TheaterFire

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Pressman4life@reddit

All older generations tell younger generations the truth, we don't believe them, just like they don't believe us.

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PieTighter@reddit

I wish they talked to us more about what is normal aging and what you need to talk to your doctor about.

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BasketBackground5569@reddit (OP)

Yes! Instead of explaining the menopause of the 3 women in the house they took it out on us.

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The older you get the longer your perspective gets. Those endless days of summer in your youth? They were a much larger percentage of your accumulated experience at the time they happened so they loom larger.

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Kpop_shot@reddit

All the old folks I knew told me just this. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe them. I didn’t understand how fast they meant!

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MaximumJones@reddit

It's called "the time compression effect". As we get older time feels like it speeds up because we have fewer new experiences and settle more into a routine, which causes our brain to be under stimulated and thus "remember" less moments during each day.

People who travel a lot and have new experiences do not feel the compression effect as much.

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Dry_Photograph_3559@reddit

I don’t doubt this is true but it seems counterintuitive. How come when I’m bored time slows down? Like, an hour long meeting at work seems to take 6 hours while having a new experience seems to go by in a flash.

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MusicMan7969@reddit

I travel pretty much 46 weeks a year for work. Time flies for me. Maybe it’s because my travel is so routine?

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GoldenGirlsOrgy@reddit

I'm happy to see that more people seem to be familiar with this concept.

Usually when this topic comes up, people defer to the false explanation about how a unit of time represents a smaller proportion of your lived life with each passing year.

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ShaiHulud1111@reddit

This is why I try and travel to different countries and move every ten years to a new city—if possible. My brain lights up again.

Moved back to my hometown for ten years and nothing stands out here. Same old stuff. I have seen, experienced everything dozens of times and the routine sucks. I have to do a lot of hobbies to stay stimulated here.

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Mark_Underscore@reddit

THIS IS THE ANSWER! Went overseas in my mid 40's and started a new overseas teaching adventure.

Those years absolutely slowed time down for me!

Now i'm back in the USA grinding a 9-5 and the months and years are flying by again 😭

Gotta get back to a new overseas destination ASAP!

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Charming-Insurance@reddit

This makes sense. I went through a depression after COVID and I swear it all went by in a flash! And my memory is crap for that time

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Ceti-@reddit

Jesus I have to switch up my routine. Not sure where the last 15 years went

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Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

Same. My granddad didn’t finish high school but when I was in college he explained the concept by saying “when you’re 20 a year is 5% of your life, it seems like a long time, when you’re 50 a year is 2% of your life and goes by in an instant so enjoy it now because you’ll be old before you know it and time feels like it is always speeding up.”

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bexy11@reddit

Me too!

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Present-Assignment99@reddit

Time moving quickly is fascinating! I took a nap after Christmas dinner 2024 and now that I have wiped the sleep from my eyes it's October 2025! Just kidding!

I don't think you can explain what seems like an acceleration of time...you just experience it.

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IHadTacosYesterday@reddit

I agree with what everybody is saying here, but at the same time, I can remember some stuff that happened in January of this year that seem like it happened 18 months ago

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justheretohelpyou__@reddit

The weeks go slow but years go fast

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KingPabloo@reddit

It’s not the older you get, it’s the lack of new experiences you are having. Do more new things and you’ll experience time differently.

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superduperhosts@reddit

Nobody in this generation is old yet. Well chronologically old.

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warbrew@reddit

I thought about this deeply when I was a lot younger. The way I see it is that we only have our own life to compare time with. When we are 5, a year is one-fifth our life span, 20%. When we are 50, a year is 2% of our life.

Breaking that down to a day: 20% of a day is 4.8 hours, a long time to wait. so, 4 hours 48 minutes of a given day to a 5 year old is proportionately the same as a year is to their, so far, lived life. a large part of it. To a 50 year old, 2% of a day is almost 30 minutes.

For a 5 year old, waiting 30 minutes is the same length of their life as waiting 4 hour 48 minutes is for a 50 year old.

It's not that time moves faster, it just becomes a smaller increment of our own lived lives.

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BasketBackground5569@reddit (OP)

Nice!

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RunningPirate@reddit

Hell dad told me that after 25, the years get faster.

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Mistyam@reddit

I tell people this all the time. And I did read an explanation several years back. It's psychological and has to do with the amount of new experiences / milestones in your life generally diminishes as you get older.

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BasketBackground5569@reddit (OP)

Makes sense.

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SoCal7s@reddit

Life slows back down if you invest in dividend stocks - waiting for those pay days. Ha Ha.

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brak-0666@reddit

Would you have believed them if they did?

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cg325is@reddit

They did tell us. My parents always said to e joy life now because the ones we you get, the faster it goes. I just chose not to listen.

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EPCreep@reddit

I just figured it’s a matter of perspective. When you’re 20, 5 years ago was a fourth of your life. When you’re 50, 5 years ago was a tenth. That’s why time seems slower as your younger- it’s a bigger percentage of your life.

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SonOfGreebo@reddit

Some truths only hit home once you yourself are old.

And one of those truths is the sad knowledge that for some things, no matter how often and how thoroughly you tell the young people, they will never, ever_believe_ you until they themselves are old.

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gimme3strokes@reddit

Time dilation. Want time to go slow, be miserable.

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AZPeakBagger@reddit

The days are long but the years are short.

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CowTipper383@reddit

It’s true. When I was 13 back in 1985, my uncle who was more like an older brother to me said, “Just wait until you hit 15. 15 to 25 goes by like a flash”. And I remember thinking, “no way…that seems such a long time.”

Now here I am, literally 40 years later, I’m 53, and remember that day like it was yesterday…can’t believe how right he was.

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Secret_Computer4891@reddit

I've been told this my entire life. Only, I didn't realize time went this fast!

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Sweaty-Blacksmith572@reddit

Pink Floyd tried to tell us. (“Time.”)

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OldSchoolPrinceFan@reddit

They did! We just didn't understand them.

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Another_Opinion_1@reddit

I heard this quite regularly growing up.

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brandonwalsh76@reddit

Meh, it's simple math that hasn't changed. Aging from 9-10 is 10% of your life, aging from 99-100 is 1%.

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RealSharpNinja@reddit

This phenomenon is not tied to having fun.

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Hoon0967@reddit

I was first introduced to this concept through a Stephen King short story that I believe was entitled “Pretty Pony Time”. As a youth it seemed unrealistic, but now with some years behind me, time is indeed flying by.

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Signal_Reputation640@reddit

IDK - My grandparents certainly talked about this when I was growing up.

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IngvaldClash@reddit

Life is like a roll of toilet paper.

My dad has said this for 40 years.

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iwritesinsnotcomedy@reddit

They didn’t tell us; they showed us. Traditionally, this is why men sat near a steam for hours in silence and fished; and women sat for hours and sewed blankets to tell stories and keep us warm. It was their way to slow down the uncontrollable time at which life ultimately moves.

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RCA2CE@reddit

I think they died before they even realized it

Remember these people didn’t exercise, they smoked & ate crazy shit like margarine as health food

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gmkrikey@reddit

It’s well known.

When you’re younger there are many new experiences that stand out in your memories. The density of new events is much higher.

As you age, there are fewer standout events. Literally fewer memorable events, so the days blur by with no markers.

Slow time down by having new experiences.

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LivingGhost371@reddit

Yeah, there's entire years where I can't remember anything that happened because it's all the same.

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TurnLooseTheKitties@reddit

Perhaps time is moving faster because we have been conditioned into believing time is money

It has been noticed by many time is speeding up so much folk can't handle the pace of change, to end up protesting about new fangled things they disagree with.

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3yl@reddit

I hear you! I feel like I've become obsessed with how fast the days/weeks/months are going by. :(

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susiequeue13@reddit

Honestly, sometimes I get tears in my eyes when I’m in the backyard where the playscape used to be. My kids are 21 and up, but I swear, I still hear and see them playing on it when I’m out there. I can’t believe how the years up and vanished.

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Reachforthesky777@reddit

I'm pretty sure they harped on about that incessantly.

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No_Hovercraft_821@reddit

Going from 5 to 10 years old takes half your life. From 50 to 55 is 10%. It also feels like the accumulation of noteworthy memories slows way down unless you keep pushing yourself to do new things.

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Prestigious_Oil_2855@reddit

My grandparents and parents both told me that life gets faster the older you get.

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Rough_Condition75@reddit

I always heard it but I had no idea it would arrive so fast.

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Rough_Condition75@reddit

Related to this, my dentist appointment has been cancelled by the office. I kept putting off rescheduling and when I finally did I was god smacked it had been since February 2024. I thought there was something wrong with their systems because I swore it was February of this year. It was actually disturbing to realize how fast that time has gone.

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