HACKER Q&A
📣 prower

As I get older, I see seconds tick physically faster. Am I alone?


Not really a tech question, but as a child I've always loved counting along digital (or analog) clocks, counting in my mind and see how precise I was. Fast-forward 20 years, now seconds in clocks are so fast. Like, almost 1.5x faster. Is it only my perception and my flawed memories?

I'm asking because I know I'm not the only one, someone else mentioned the same thing here once, and that makes me fairly curious.

  👤 poormystic Accepted Answer ✓
Some people reported a sense of time having suddenly, subjectively "sped up" in the 3rd week of September 1992. For an unknown reason at the end of that week it felt "as though only 4 days had passed rather than a week" according to some. I have not heard of any reports that Subjective Time has changed again, so I suppose it must still be going at 7/4 it's 1991 rate.

:P

👤 hudixt
Here's the video from Veritasium around same topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY

Video explains it in detail about why this happens.

👤 Lorenz-Kraft
The sense of time is connected to your age. There are studies about it and why time, as a child is perceived different than as a adult.

About: "Like, almost 1.5x faster." You can check your perceived time by traveling the same distance you have traveled as a child (trip to grandparent, local lake for swimming etc.). If you are not 50% faster at your location, its surely your perceived time that has changed.

👤 simonblack
The way it affects me is that that every time I wonder "what day is it today?", it's always Thursday.

That makes it seem to me that every day is Thursday. When there's only, on average, 4 Thursdays a month, a year just flashes past.