If you feel the like time goes by more quickly as you get older, then you are not alone! This idea is not just a myth as over the years, a number of researches on this topic have been done for further study. Now we come up with one theory that reveals the secret of why time flies way too quick as we age.
The concept of “chunking” by Philosopher Dr. Douglas Hofstadter
According to Hofstadter, people have the tendency to reminisce and gather their memories into greater chunks.
For instance, during a vacation with the family, a young kid experiences and notices smaller fragments of the whole vacation such as; they might meet their neighbors, they might change the route to reach the destination, they might be lost along the way and any other possibilities which can happen during the vacation.
The young kid pays attention during the holiday by memorizing each of individual experience; but when it comes to seeing the vacation from the perspective of the parents (adults), they would tend to lump the experience together with other vacations they have been on during their lives in their memories.
Therefore, no wonder if the parents feel that the time seems to speed up due to the “fewer” experience they think they have.
If we look back at longer periods, time seems to fly
This theory has also been tested by Mark Landu, a researcher from the University of Kansas and his team from the same university. They asked 107 out of 324 participants to write about experiences in a year and associate them with similar experiences in years before. These 107 people are actually categorized as the chunking group.
Meanwhile, the rest of the participants were asked to reflect on how if their experiences could have turned out differently. Based on the result, the chunking group perceives time as passing faster than the second group does.
Even though the theory eventually was proved right, the authors of the study warn people that sometimes the mindset of perceiving time flies way too quickly can be demotivating. As we are not able to stop time, the best bet we can do is to enjoy every moment, embrace failures, and live in the present. For each event is unique and we cannot experience the same event twice.
source: businessinsider.sg