The Mystery of Time Flying By

Have you ever experienced the feeling that summer break passed so quickly? Many people feel as though time flies by as we age. Although a day is still just twenty-four hours long, there are many new experiences, such as new people and places that take up our time when we are younger. When this occurs our brains are more attentive to these events, which makes the perception of time slower and longer.

In contrast, as we enter adulthood, life seems much more predictable. Our lives become very repetitive, with the same basic schedule, and not a lot of opportunities to have new experiences. Since our brains do not perceive as many new experiences during this time period as they did during childhood, it is easier to pass time, resulting in days running together and weeks passing by much quicker than before.

The other reason is that as we get older, each year loses value since, for a child, a year is a much greater percentage of their entire life, whereas an adult has a smaller proportion of their total life for each year that goes by. This causes us to feel as if time passes more quickly, even though time itself has not changed.

Earth is actually rotating faster than the past, but just slightly so that they do not affect how we experience time. This is still an interesting fact even though this is not a big reason.

Ultimately, time is constant, but our individual experiences of time change, and if we can create new experiences, focus on those experiences, and break up the monotony of life we can again begin to make our experiences of time feel slower and richer than they are now.