Perceived passage of time changes with age because younger people process sensory information at a faster rate and encounter more novel experiences, making individual moments feel longer. Children experience many firsts, leading to denser encoding and the formation of numerous cognitive schemas, whereas adults rely on established schemas and habitual processing, which reduces moment-to-moment attention. Accumulated days and increased responsibilities contribute to the sensation that time slips away for adults. A physiological component interacts with proportional experience. Intentionally introducing novelty and varied activities into daily life increases attentional processing and can slow subjective time.
When I first drafted this piece, the first line originally included a preface to suggest that what I was to discuss here is a continuation or extension of sorts of a recent piece I wrote, probably from about 6-9 months ago. I was amazed when I looked back to reference that "recent" piece ... ...I had posted it in 2022-nearly three years ago! Where does the time go?
However, what I didn't discuss was that there's also a physiological basis for this. Yes, there's a proportional element of "relative experience" here, but with that, when we're young, the information we process is done so at a rapid-fire rate. The metaphor of children being like sponges is apropos here-children absorb a lot relative to adults.
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