A quick word on getting older (Off-Topic)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Saturday, June 10, 2017, 16:00 (2724 days ago) @ Kahzgul
edited by Cody Miller, Saturday, June 10, 2017, 16:05

Yo! Happy birthday buddy!

Interesting note about time "zipping by" as you get older. Our brains tend to remember things as generalities, so if you have a lot of similar experiences (say, similar days at work), they all get lumped in as "generic day at work" in your brain. If you want your perception of time to slow down again, start adding new and different experiences into your life. I've recently shaken things up A LOT in my life this year, and I swear it's like i've lived more life in the last six months than in the previous six years (notable exceptions for the birth of a child and a few other choice moments).

The point is, if you do something different today, today will stand out as special in your memory. Do that every day, and you'll feel like you're experiencing life anew.

I can confirm this anecdotally. For me, the time that went by fastest was the four years in High School. This is perhaps because it was the most structured part of my life. Since moving to California 9 years ago, and having a career with different jobs at irregular times that often take me places, and having the opportunity to partake in tons of new hobbies and meet groups of people, it seems like a really distant memory to not be here. Older people would say 9 years is nothing… but thinking back it feels like an eternity.

I wonder if the fact that there aren't really any seasonal signifiers in Socal the way there are elsewhere, with autumn leaves and snow reminding you of the passage of time, affects time perception as well.

Strangely, a way to have the opposite feeling is to think about television or video games. When I think about playing Halo for the first time, that feels like yesterday even though it was 14 years ago. Or when I think about watching Lois and Clark on TV when it came out… it feels like no time has passed. I wonder why that is. Is it the difference between real and virtual experiences? I wonder if a bookworm would think time flew by, or a really avid hardcore gamer who plays for like 8 hours a day. Would Roger Ebert's life seem quick because he watched 8000 movies?