Saturday, November 3. 2007
If you ever have the chance to get old, well... don't. But if you do end up actually progressing in age, like most people do, you'll start to realize a distortion other than your increasing beer gut: time starts going faster and faster. Personally, I've experienced this phenomenon just looking back on the last 21 years of my life. Especially being in college, I find myself saying, "wow, this year FLEW by" at some points, but at others it feels like "it'll never end." Why does this happen?
One thought is that there's a temporal vortex warping spacetime on a personal level so that time literally does progress faster as you get older. That thought is, of course, a load of shit. The better idea is that cognitive factors are involved in the way we perceive the world as we age. More specifically, I think that as we age, our way of viewing passing time changes. Effectively, I think "time flies" only because we make it fly, especially in the way we group time periods with varying age.
Think about the normal progression of life, more specifically, think about the time periods upon which we focus ourselves:
(continued)- infant (birth to 2 years old). Needs-oriented. Everything is about mommy/daddy. When is the next time we see mom or dad? When do we get our food? When do we get smiles? When do we get playtime. Most of these goal points happen at various times throughout the day.
- child (2 to puberty). Day-oriented. We go to school, and we either have a favorite period, a favorite television program after school, or a favorite evening activity. Essentially, "happy time" comes once per day.
- teen (puberty to 18). Strong day orientation, entry weekend orientation. All of the parties/social periods occur pretty much after school and most frequently on the weekends. Teenagers are still under the pressures of their parents not to party it up on school days, so most fun will probably happen on weekends.
- college (18-25). This varies from person to person (some not going at all), but for the people who do attend college, it would depend on scheduling and such. A full class load occupying m-f would drive more toward the time sense of the next period, while occasional class loads would drive toward the teenage (or even in rare instances, the younger) divisions. Moreover, semester divisions are more apparent; for, even if a student is taking courses year-round, there are still three distinct ends-of-semester. Vacation periods also become more prominent. Hallmark birthdays (16, 18, 21, 25) are only ever a couple of years away.
- early professional (mid 20s to late 30s/early 40s). By this time, most jobs are rigorously scheduled monday through friday, 9-5 (or some other hour/day division). Semesters have sadly dissolved, and most people no longer get summers or winters off. Essentially, one has now shifted to having fun solely on the weekends, because everyone tends to be "too tired" by the time they get off work. An increased role of vacations also takes prescedence, as they're the few stretches of absolute non-work activity. New Year's Day and other holidays become beacons of hope, allowing one to stray from the monotonies of life.
- late professional (~40s-retirement). At this point, most people have a daily, weekly, monthly, and possibly yearly routine. They go to work, make their money, watch their television, buttsecks the wife, play with the kids, and do whatever else they do during their day/week to the point where the week-based routine becomes a routine itself, and the only true novel break in the routine is vacation time. Whereas the weekend might have been the novelty for the early professional, long stretch vacation time is the only true novelty for the late professional.
So there we see it. Granted, it's all original research, so I don't really have anything to back it up; but, I think it makes sense, and it's the best explanation I could come up with. After all, it's all a matter of perspective: if you want the time to go slower, find something new about life, people, and the world every day and look forward to doing so; but, don't get too caught up in it, or searching for novelty will become routine. I suppose, then, that the true way to stay young the longest is to continually find ways to be surprised. Above all, don't ever let yourself get caught in a rigid routine.
Remember: when we start acting like adults, that's when we become them.
Trust me&edash; I know. I had to unlearn a lot of the nonsense I learned when I was extremely young just to keep from mentally turning 70 this year. I'm hoping that within the next few years I can get back to 30 or maybe even 22. It's a lofty ambition, but with perseverance I think I can do it. :P
Cheers.
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