Does time go faster as a kid?

Question

Something has been bugging me lately. I just turned 20 recently and I started thinking back on my childhood and how it seemed to last forever. It seemed like time went a lot slower back then. A year back then seems equivalent to about 2 or 3 years now. I'm just wondering, does everyone experience this? Does time continue to get faster? Why does time get faster?

Man, being 20 sucks.

Answer 1

In response to the last question you asked, I'm not sure if you are looking for some kind of experiential, existential answer, but you raise a really interesting issue that I have never considered. Why does time get faster as one grows older?

Physically, time is the result of distance and speed with the variant of gravity (if you are a subscribe to the A-Theory of Time and Einstein's Theory of Relativity...which most are). So in the actual physical sense of your question, yes and no. Time has probably been always constant in your life because you have not made any significant changes in your temporal-spatial continuum (i.e. gone to space, traveled at the speed of light, etc.). But really, physically, the question cannot be answered because age has nothing to do with it.

However, philosophically, this raises an interesting question. How does our general development as personal beings affect our outlook on time, especially in regards to passage of time. An quirky phenomena that I have myself noticed, similar to yours, is that when I was younger, the days went by quite fast; however, the years would seem to crawl by. Now, it seems more the case that the days go by slower; however, the years pass with increasing "speed."

As physical creatures, we are bound by time because we are a part of the physical world and time is a product of the physical world (see above). However, because we are also sentient, personal creatures, time passes to an arbitrary degree. To illustrate, once in high school, I spent eight hours on the phone with a girl. In hindsight, I have no idea what would ever possess me to do such a thing, but at the time I really enjoyed it. And it went by really fast. On the other hand, I once had to work an eight hour shift digging a trench in a sixty year old basement...not fun. That time went by inexorably slow.

Physically, in both situations, time passed at basically the same rate and constancy. However, to me, in my mind and experience, there was great variation between the passages of time in those two instances. This being because I was interacting with two different happenings of which I had two different dispositions towards (I liked talking to a girl; I did not like digging a trench). So the issue was my interaction with my surroundings or people.

So, not only are we time-bound creatures, we are also time-full creatures who interact with time not like watches - to which time passes with the same consistency within a constant spatio-temporal context, ticking off moments with the same constant precision (provided you have a good watch) - but fluidly, passage depending on the way we feel, who we are with, what we are doing, etc. Put plainly, philosophical time is catalogued and understood through interaction with things, some beyond, and some inside of, ourselves.

So in regards to your question, my answer is another: what philosophically changes in us as we grow to make the nature of time for all practical purposes, change in essence to us? And is this change something experienced universally by all people, or is this phenomena only to be understood within certain cultural-linguistic frameworks?

It is in accordance with good philosophical etiquette to at least attempt a sufficient answer to one's own question raised, however, I had only just begun to ponder it - having just read your question - when I began to write this answer. This being this case, I would not consider my answer sufficient.

In answer my last question, I would say that yes, this is probably a universal experience. This is, of course, a limited conjecture, as I have not interviewed all cultural-linguistic people groups, however, within literature, proverbial wisdom, and philosophy, this phenomena does attain some mention.

To the second question, I would say that as we grow, we begin to develop more accute sense of our beliefs, attitudes, and general worldview (this is not necessarily a conscious occurance). Moreover, we begin to understand the relevance of issues such as mortality, spirituality, and the "unfathomable questions" of being alive and real and in this place and time. At the same time, and in conjunction with these developments (moreover, causing us to more deeply form and interpret these developments), we are forced to undergo many experience within life, both good and bad, which shape who we are and how we view life. As this happens, our resevoir of experiences grows to the point where we are looking ahead and to the present with a perpetual reference to where we've been. So with so much to look back to, each moment becomes smaller comparatively speaking to all the other moments we have experienced. To attempt a haphazard analogy, a mile seems very long to someone who does not run regularly; however, to my step-mother who runs marathons, a mile is a very short distance, indeed.

On top of that, there is that sense in which time always seems to have passed faster in hindsight than in reality. My looking back at those long grueling hours digging a ditch and those short enticing hours talking to a girl is probably, by way of cognitive faculties, two very similar events. However, I only remember one going by quickly, while I can distinctly remember the other dragging on. It is kind of like when, in high school, in November, the year seems like it has and will continue to go on forever; but when summer arrives, it sure seems like it went by fast.

The problem is understanding the present. The past is always changing to us, because we are always adding more things to it. The future, although for the most part totally indecipherable, is contant because we never really experience it at all, in that once the future actually arrives, it is really just the present. But the present, what is it? Once you try to apprehend it, it has already changed into the past.

C. S. Lewis said that the present is the closest thing to living in eternity. Perhaps he was right. Because one thing that does seem apparent to me is that, while the past seems to have gone by with increasing "speed," and the future remains on a horizon that we will always run to and never reach (kind of like Sisyphus and his rock or a horse following a carrot, strung on a stick attached to the horse himself); the present is always here, just experienced all the times with different dispositions. It is only when we have looked at how we have been experiencing the present that we make declarations like, "This class (the same 50 minute period as always) is taking forever," or "Time is really flying by." Again, the time passed is interpreted through our reaction to it.

So, in an incomplete and badly-begging-for-revision answer to your question, time does not go faster; we change in how we view it, as we change in how we view everything else.

I realize that in putting this "Treatise of Time with Reference to the Inconstancy of the Present as Age Progresses" (written dripping with sarcasm; this is no treatise) on this site, in terms of length and not representing them within scholastic expectations, I will undoubtedly receive negative feedback, some of which is deserved, some of which is simply mere rudeness. However, your question really was an intriguing one, and I wanted to give you an answer to it. The best that I could, really. And after all, is that not what this site is about?

And by the way, 20 only seems like it "sucks." However, my suspicion is that you will not mind looking back on it in later years (provided you are making appropriate choices). But alas, this too shall pass.

Answer 2

Honey you don't knw anything yet. I am pretty old. I remember when Summer was endless. We played on the City streets till like 11 o'clock at nigt. Back then everybody watched out for every body else. I remember th night would get finally so black and we ere still playing ball and we would feel like our eyes were falling out. Summer was endless back then. The sights the sounds of summer were long and sweet.

Finally back to School time came around and you would have small sense of sadness yet glad at the same time. I live in Jersey back to school outfits were always flannel something and it would be hot. The World Series was always in September and the Yankees were usually in it then after the series you would .feel saddened because Summer really was over.

Xmas time an the wek was full of joy and seeing relatives and friends and those ten days seemed endless. Before you know it Easter and another long week. Fun anticipating Springs arrival.

Time was long when you are young and I always tell kids or bust them You don't get all that free time when you are older. No long Holidays, no teachers conventions blah ' blah' blah.

Twenty is still a blast it is just that you are more responsible than at seveneen. Time ges faster and faster with age. But you know as each year goes by faster and faster you just try harder to keep up. And you are glad to see the years go by because ou have survived and conqured another year. You have fulfilled life's longing. Good Luck in Your Adventure into LIfe. I is just starting..

Answer 3

You are not alone. I am 27 now and when I was a kid it felt like the school year went by s s s o o o s l o w. Now that my kids are in school it feels like there is no time in a day. Just yesterday I gave birth to them and now they are already 11 and 8 years old. Where does time go? I think that as you get older and your life becomes more busy, you don't have that free time you once had, so time zooms by before you have had time to blink twice.

Answer 4

Life gets better, they say life begins at 30 and they are right, you usually have your life together then. Life goes by much faster as an adult because as adults we are very busy with our careers, and family responsibilities. Also life today is a much faster pace then when you were a kid, we have so much more technology now. Most people do experience life going by quicker, and yes life continues to go by quicker because of the many more added responsibilities, and a much faster paced life style. Hang in there life does get better, you just need to do things to make life better for yourself. Take care and God Bless!

Answer 5

Here is an explanation for the reason that time seems to pass faster as one grows older: When a child is two years old, one year is half of its life, 50%. As one ages, a year becomes an ever smaller per centage of one's life so that if one should live to be one hundred, a year would be only one one hundredth of his or her life or 1%. Also, the longer you live, the more the years seem to run together and be alike.

Answer 6

Believe me, you're not alone. I've been feeling the same way lately. Time did seem to go by a lot slower when I was younger. Now I can't seem to hold on to it. It's like time is rushing me to become older and I don't like it.

Answer 7

i think when you are younger you haven't experienced as much and you don't yet understand how fragile and precious life is. I remember as a kid it seemed that it took forever for each Christmas to come, and now they seem to just flow by, i can remember older people telling me this when my kids were little that when they started school the time would really fly, and it has. try to enjoy life as much as you can and savor each moment because it doesn't take long before you'll be an old fogey like me !

Answer 8

Time seems to go faster as you get older. After 50 it just rushes by. Everyone experiences it.

Being over 50 is even worse. You have something to not look forward to.

Answer 9

actally time does go slower when ur a kid cause when u are small u cant tell time so you didnt have to worry about the time and now that ur older u can tell tim ena du have to work and that makes time fly by even dating and hanging out with friend and family.

Answer 10

Time went by a lot slower then.

Answer 11

I wish I was 20 again!
Wait until your nearing 40.
I keep thinking in ten years I'll be darn near 50.
My god how did this happen.
I can't be this old.
50... Oh god.