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Kyo · 11-17-2003, 04:04 PM

This particular phenomenon was brought to my attention during my first year as an undergraduate student. It seemed to me that time was passing faster than it was in high school, in all degrees. By that, I mean, a year seemed to go by faster, semester after semester, but so did weeks, and days. I would get up, do what I had to do, and suddenly it'd be 11:00 pm and I'd be sleeping again. Watching time fly by, indeed.

I sat down to think about it during one of my strange depression periods, and the answer, at least for myself, dawned upon me. I'm going to explain this the long way, in part to defend my idea, as well as to make the idea more clear.

First, what is time? There are a lot of answers to this question, but if we want a practical (ie, non-theoretical, non-scientific) answer, I believe it is the currency with which we do things - what we spend in order to accomplish something. We need time because that is what allows things to happen. Our lives are ruled by deadlines, appointments, etc. This project is due to the boss this coming tuesday, so I have 3 days to work on it. I have to meet my sister at the opera at 7:00 pm, so I have 2 hours to get ready. The airplane leaves at noon, and I want to get there one hour ahead, and the airport is half an hour away, so I have to leave the house at 10:30.

Now that we have our definition of time, we can answer the question of why it seems to pass so quickly. When you are a child, what do you do with your time? Very little. For the first several years of your life, your existence is an erratic cycle of sleeping, eating, and minor physical activity and social interaction with family and friends. I argue that at this point time has no meaning for you. There is nothing you have to do, no deadlines, no set times for anything. You wail, and you are fed. You sleep when you are tired. The rise and fall of the sun, as well as the activities of those around you, do not affect your stomach's needs or your fatigue.

Once you reach grade school, time becomes more important. You have to wake up a certain time, and get to a certain place at a certain time, in which you must spend some amount of time doing work (which may or may not be enjoyable - which also affects your perception of time), after which you return home and either do homework or play. At this point, the quantity of time becomes important - how long must I sit in class? You can no longer do what you want whenever you want, so you have to worry about things like lunchtime and naptime. If you have homework that needs to be done by tomorrow, you need to keep in mind how much time you have to play and still be able to finish your homework.

As we grow older, our lives continue to grow in complexity. As we continue to add events and activities to our schedules, we must pay an ever increasing amount of attention to exact times - when do I have to wake up for my first class? When is my term paper due? When does the boss want this paperwork? When am I supposed to meet John for lunch? What time does Best Buy close? When will the pizza get here?

So in addition to having more things to do in a day, we must also pay more attention to time - both may increase the speed at which you perceive time to pass.

The theory is sound, at least for me. Lazy summer days pass very slowly for me - lounging around the house does not require any real concept of time, after all. Only when I have something to accomplish that I feel the passage of time, the pressure of a deadline.

11-17-2003, 04:04 PM	#11 (permalink)
Kyo Crazy	This particular phenomenon was brought to my attention during my first year as an undergraduate student. It seemed to me that time was passing faster than it was in high school, in all degrees. By that, I mean, a year seemed to go by faster, semester after semester, but so did weeks, and days. I would get up, do what I had to do, and suddenly it'd be 11:00 pm and I'd be sleeping again. Watching time fly by, indeed. I sat down to think about it during one of my strange depression periods, and the answer, at least for myself, dawned upon me. I'm going to explain this the long way, in part to defend my idea, as well as to make the idea more clear. First, what is time? There are a lot of answers to this question, but if we want a practical (ie, non-theoretical, non-scientific) answer, I believe it is the currency with which we do things - what we spend in order to accomplish something. We need time because that is what allows things to happen. Our lives are ruled by deadlines, appointments, etc. This project is due to the boss this coming tuesday, so I have 3 days to work on it. I have to meet my sister at the opera at 7:00 pm, so I have 2 hours to get ready. The airplane leaves at noon, and I want to get there one hour ahead, and the airport is half an hour away, so I have to leave the house at 10:30. Now that we have our definition of time, we can answer the question of why it seems to pass so quickly. When you are a child, what do you do with your time? Very little. For the first several years of your life, your existence is an erratic cycle of sleeping, eating, and minor physical activity and social interaction with family and friends. I argue that at this point time has no meaning for you. There is nothing you have to do, no deadlines, no set times for anything. You wail, and you are fed. You sleep when you are tired. The rise and fall of the sun, as well as the activities of those around you, do not affect your stomach's needs or your fatigue. Once you reach grade school, time becomes more important. You have to wake up a certain time, and get to a certain place at a certain time, in which you must spend some amount of time doing work (which may or may not be enjoyable - which also affects your perception of time), after which you return home and either do homework or play. At this point, the quantity of time becomes important - how long must I sit in class? You can no longer do what you want whenever you want, so you have to worry about things like lunchtime and naptime. If you have homework that needs to be done by tomorrow, you need to keep in mind how much time you have to play and still be able to finish your homework. As we grow older, our lives continue to grow in complexity. As we continue to add events and activities to our schedules, we must pay an ever increasing amount of attention to exact times - when do I have to wake up for my first class? When is my term paper due? When does the boss want this paperwork? When am I supposed to meet John for lunch? What time does Best Buy close? When will the pizza get here? So in addition to having more things to do in a day, we must also pay more attention to time - both may increase the speed at which you perceive time to pass. The theory is sound, at least for me. Lazy summer days pass very slowly for me - lounging around the house does not require any real concept of time, after all. Only when I have something to accomplish that I feel the passage of time, the pressure of a deadline. __________________ Sure I have a heart; it's floating in a jar in my closet, along with my tonsils, my appendix, and all of the other useless organs I ripped out.