Why Does Time Seem to Move Faster as We Grow Older? | Big Think - 0 views
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Today it feels like the days peel on by, and a vacation which may last days or weeks is gone in mere hours. This is a common human experience.
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There are an awful lot of theories that give us insight. But a direct scientific law so far remains elusive.
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In 1877, the “ratio theory” was born, which states that we compare intervals to the total amount of time we’ve been alive. This can also be called “proportional theory,” the idea that as we age, our sense of the present begins to feel short as compared to our total lifespan.
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While youth colors everything anew, as we age, we become more or less familiar with every aspect of our surroundings, and so the nuance wears off.
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Young people tended to select steady or unchanging metaphors for time, while older people chose those which had to do with swiftness and speed.
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This creates a “reminiscence bump.” The farther we move away from the bump, the quicker time seems to move.
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A neurochemical explanation lies in the dopamine level in our brains. This is the pleasure neurotransmitter that gives us a feeling of wellbeing and reward.
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I have sometimes think about this issue and the explanation I come up is that when we are seven, one year is one seventh of our live. When we are seventy, the denominator get much bigger and the proportion get significantly smaller, one seventieth. I am very surprised to find that the scientists have similar theory. It also shows how unreliable our sense perception is. We are very unreliable about time since time is a concept that we cannot see or touch. How we feel about time largely depends on our individual emotion. Our brain also tends to remember the first times and we also have a tendency to believe vivid memory. --Sissi (2/8/2017)