It is a well-known and well-recognized phenomenon that when a person gets older, time seems to pass much quicker. Meaning that, for instance, a year feels much shorter than it did when one was young.
As a young kid, a year felt like an extraordinarily long period of time. Things that happened a year earlier feel like they happened a really, really long ago, and that tons and tons of things have happened since those times.
However, the older you get, the more "compressed" time starts feeling. As a 10-year-old, things that happened a year earlier feel like really distant, having happened a really, really long time ago. As a 40-year-old, however, things that happened a year earlier feel like they just happened a bit ago. In fact, even longer periods of time don't feel that long.
Even when fully realizing the exact amount of time that has passed, one still can't get rid of that feeling that they happened "not so long ago".
One thing I have noticed this phenomenon happening the strongest, is remembering seeing movies for the first time. For example, I saw the first Matrix movie when it came to theaters. It feels that yes, some time has passed since that then, but not an extraordinarily long time. It feels like a few years, but not like a lifetime ago.
But then I look at the year when The Matrix was released, and it just feels surreal: 1999. That's 19 years ago. That's almost half my age. I have lived since that event for almost as long as I have lived prior to that event.
Yet, it doesn't feel like it has been that long. It doesn't feel like almost 20 years have passed. 20 years is, after all, quite a long amount of time in terms of human lifetime. Yet it just doesn't feel like it. The psychological feeling I get is the same as if the movie had come out... I don't know... maybe 5 years ago? 10 at most.
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring feels even more recent. A lot more recent. Yet, it came out in 2001. That's 17 years ago. I swear it doesn't feel like 17 years. In terms of subjective feeling, 7 years could be closer to the mark.
Overall, things that have happened in the 2000's, even though it has been a whopping 18 years, feel all quite "recent" to me, even though that's almost half of my entire life. It's really strange.
I was born in the 70's, and lived my childhood and early teens throughout the 80's. I swear that the 80's felt a lot, lot longer than the 2000's so far, even though those were just 10 years, vs. the 18 years that we have been in this millenium.
It's really strange, and curious, that even though I am perfectly aware of the math, I still can't shed that feeling.
Of course the depressing thing about this phenomenon is that the older you get, the more it feels like time, and life, is just passing by like a high-speed train. Personal projects and hobbies don't get done, and it feels like months and months, and then years and years, pass by, and I don't get anything of any significance done. Before I know, it's yet another new year, and when I think of everything that I wanted to do during that year, but didn't, it feels depressing. It feels like it was just a moment ago that the year changed previously, and now it's changing again.
As a kid, you felt like a million things happened during a year, which felt like a lifetime. As a late-middle-aged adult it feels like only a few things happened during the year, which passed very quickly, before you could even notice. It doesn't exactly help if your life has become routine. You do the same things every day, and every week. As a kid there were no routines, only new things to try, learn and experience. As an adult, your life has been settled and you do the same things every day. And before you notice, the end of the year is here once again, and nothing of any importance has, once again, happened.
As a young kid, a year felt like an extraordinarily long period of time. Things that happened a year earlier feel like they happened a really, really long ago, and that tons and tons of things have happened since those times.
However, the older you get, the more "compressed" time starts feeling. As a 10-year-old, things that happened a year earlier feel like really distant, having happened a really, really long time ago. As a 40-year-old, however, things that happened a year earlier feel like they just happened a bit ago. In fact, even longer periods of time don't feel that long.
Even when fully realizing the exact amount of time that has passed, one still can't get rid of that feeling that they happened "not so long ago".
One thing I have noticed this phenomenon happening the strongest, is remembering seeing movies for the first time. For example, I saw the first Matrix movie when it came to theaters. It feels that yes, some time has passed since that then, but not an extraordinarily long time. It feels like a few years, but not like a lifetime ago.
But then I look at the year when The Matrix was released, and it just feels surreal: 1999. That's 19 years ago. That's almost half my age. I have lived since that event for almost as long as I have lived prior to that event.
Yet, it doesn't feel like it has been that long. It doesn't feel like almost 20 years have passed. 20 years is, after all, quite a long amount of time in terms of human lifetime. Yet it just doesn't feel like it. The psychological feeling I get is the same as if the movie had come out... I don't know... maybe 5 years ago? 10 at most.
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring feels even more recent. A lot more recent. Yet, it came out in 2001. That's 17 years ago. I swear it doesn't feel like 17 years. In terms of subjective feeling, 7 years could be closer to the mark.
Overall, things that have happened in the 2000's, even though it has been a whopping 18 years, feel all quite "recent" to me, even though that's almost half of my entire life. It's really strange.
I was born in the 70's, and lived my childhood and early teens throughout the 80's. I swear that the 80's felt a lot, lot longer than the 2000's so far, even though those were just 10 years, vs. the 18 years that we have been in this millenium.
It's really strange, and curious, that even though I am perfectly aware of the math, I still can't shed that feeling.
Of course the depressing thing about this phenomenon is that the older you get, the more it feels like time, and life, is just passing by like a high-speed train. Personal projects and hobbies don't get done, and it feels like months and months, and then years and years, pass by, and I don't get anything of any significance done. Before I know, it's yet another new year, and when I think of everything that I wanted to do during that year, but didn't, it feels depressing. It feels like it was just a moment ago that the year changed previously, and now it's changing again.
As a kid, you felt like a million things happened during a year, which felt like a lifetime. As a late-middle-aged adult it feels like only a few things happened during the year, which passed very quickly, before you could even notice. It doesn't exactly help if your life has become routine. You do the same things every day, and every week. As a kid there were no routines, only new things to try, learn and experience. As an adult, your life has been settled and you do the same things every day. And before you notice, the end of the year is here once again, and nothing of any importance has, once again, happened.
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