Popular wisdom holds that time goes faster when you’re older. However, a new study (summary here) by William Friedman and?Steve Janssen doesn’t quite support the maxim. They surveyed college students and older adults: “Respondents of all ages reported that time seems to pass quickly. In contrast to widely held beliefs, age differences in reports of the subjective speed of time were very small, except for the question about how fast the last 10?years had passed.” Readers, what do you think? Does time pass faster as you climb the age ladder? If so, what might be the reasons? Let’s hear from older readers in particular. [%comments]
Time Flies?
TAGS: psychology
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They responded that time passes quickly. In order to judge the passage of time as being quick, they must have some baseline to which they can compare it. For both age groups, that baseline must be in the past since it is currently impossible to judge the passage of time in the future. Therefore, both age groups report that time currently passes quickly for them when compared to the passage of time in the past; or: time passes quicker as they get older. There’s nothing in this study that compares the elders’ perspective of the passage of time to the college students’ experience of the passage of time.
I’m with Tony on this one.
Yes, time passes quicker as I age. I’m 55 (and-a-half). Summers of my primary school years were never ending, to be enjoyed with whatever came up each day. In fourth grade, I’d spent half my life in school, yet I had twice as much to go before I’d get out? Now summers flash by too fast to do the dreamed of things. I’ll be retired before I’m ready.
Time definitely goes faster as you get older. No double about it.
but OF COURSE college kids said that time seems to go by fast, because it’s never gone by as quickly as when you’re 30, 40, 50. Man, those days would just draaaaagggg now.
Tony is correct — it’s why the developmental differences between a three year old and a four year old are so great, but college classes can have freshmen through seniors without issue.
I put this into the category of “What strange weather we’ve been having lately….”
Humans don’t have a good sense of time. Perhaps they sense its speed by thinking back on recent events, and as one ages, one spends less time reminiscing on these.
Ah yes, those long Summer vacation days spent in frolicking without worries. And they seem gone in a flash. Now when I meditate I can stop time.
I know the summers go faster but the winters don’t.
I agree time passes more quickly as you age, but I don’t attribute it to a percentage factor. I think it’s more a question of concentration and experience. When you are young, most of your experiences are first-time. You absorb a lot of information and sensation. As you get older, the “been there, done that” factor figures more prominently.