I have heard before that the chemical in our brain that is related to how we perceive time becomes depleted as we age, making us believe time is moving faster.
I can't remember how long ago I heard this. It feels like ages, and so I can't fully vogue for its accuracy, but I once accepted it as a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Since then I have spent a good deal of time pondering time and the passing of it, and I think that perhaps that explanation, while it may have some merit, may not be the whole truth. It doesn't, for instance, explain why "time flies when you're having fun."
The general rule is that time will go quickly whenever you aren't paying attention to it. You're concentrating on work or a project or your friends or activities around you.
What does it mean then to truly lose track of time? If it is all a matter of chemicals then shouldn't we perceive it the same way (regardless of enjoyment level) until the chemicals are altered?
Not to mention, neither of these conditions (chemicals or lack of attention) fully explain how we adjust to certain set time periods. For instance, an hour long drive to work may seem like it takes forever the first week or so, but gradually, while you may still be aware of the time suck out of your overall day, the drive becomes more bearable and you may even find yourself willing to drive to other places that are an hour away that previously you had avoided due to the time.
An hour becomes "not that bad."
You may even experience a "we're there already?" type of feeling.
Particularly when driving I have noticed that the first time you go somewhere it always feels like it takes longer. I suppose it could take a bit longer. You may be going slower, looking for where to go. But really I think it is a matter of what to expect. Once you get a feel for this road then that barn then this turn etc. the trip seems to take less time perhaps because there is less time between something familiar that you are able to recognize.
Meaning simply, that if you are looking for one landmark and then the next, consciously or unconsciously, you are actually taking a bunch of mini trips. I just passed the big blue house... now I'm at the red barn... now I'm at that odd fork in the road... Instead of I left my drive way and am currently in limbo until I reach final destination.
So really, perhaps the wait is not based on our actual perception of time, but how long, the actual minutes, that we are made to feel that we wait. Even counting down to 5 o'clock on a long work day can be somewhat sated by counting down the hours instead of focusing on all the hours between you and the end.
However, I don't think this is full proof either, because this returns our attention to time and we inevitably feel it slow down. Waiting for each second to pass could make 5 minutes last a life time.
This is what is kind of baffling and perhaps why there is the difference between waiting for things to happen, like events or landmarks, and waiting for time itself to happen. The problem is we can tell when events happen, but perhaps we really don't perceive time at all. We only think we do.
In other words, if you can accept that a trip is measured by how many noticeable landmarks we pass, then time is arguably measured by how many events or activities we "pass."
In other words, think of each year as a car trip. There are certain landmarks throughout that we must pass- new years, start of school, St. Patrick's Day and Easter, end of school, a birthday, 4th of July, etc.
The longer any trip is, the longer it takes us to adjust to its landmarks and begin to see it as "not that long" or "fast."
When we are kids we don't fully understand the order of yearly events and are often forced to think about time in terms of years, months, days, hours- concepts in of themselves we may not completely understand yet. There is no true concept until we get a little older when we realize these major holidays or reoccurring life events happen in the same order.
Additionally, unlike a simple road trip, in a year new events can be added and old events can be taken away, making a typical year not quite typical and a little more difficult to adjust to the natural flow and order of.
And if you think about life, or years, as trips, and you realize that the longer the plane or car trip the more times we will need to take it before it begins to feel reasonable, and even more before it becomes not a big deal, and we assume life works in the same way (accepting years as trips) then a year long trip is a very long trip.
But it is also a trip we continue to take, over and over and over. Every year's events becoming slightly more predictable to our subconscious mind. We begin to recognize other things, not just the major holidays or we work in our own little check points (spring cleaning, family reunions etc.) thereby a year soon becomes not too incredibly long to wait for something. And then, a year begins to move faster to us. We feel we are waiting less for the next big event.
And then we find ourselves wondering at Christmas what happened to Easter.
There is also a kind of reverse effect that I am experiencing where time feels like it is moving forward quickly, but instead of that making me feel that Easter was only yesterday, it makes me feel like Easter was years ago. I think it again has to do with how much I am actually doing. How I fill my time.
I guess what I am getting at, though I haven't totally figured it out, is that I don't think we truly understand the concept of time. We don't actually know how to measure a second. We measure time by what we do. So when we do a lot, we feel like a lot of time should have passed (making us surprised when we look up from a productive morning and smile realizing "it's only 11 o'clock!) and when we put our focus into doing on thing, even if that thing is very involved we feel that not a lot of time should have passed (I spend a few hours working on a story or grading papers, so I'm only doing one thing in my mind, so when I look up and realize it's almost time for dinner- time is moving too fast!).
I'm not sure how to explain our internal clocks. Some people have very good eternal clocks and I have a tendency to sometimes have a good internal clock. I can tell when I have surpassed my typical shower length or, if I concentrate really hard before going to sleep I will wake up at 6. I will wake up at 6. I can actually very often wake up at 6.
This leaves me to two possible explanations: 1. our body's understand how long a minute is through consistent training, but our brains are unable to actually process the concept in a way we understand. OR 2. We are still measuring time through a series of events but it is something that we have taught ourselves internally. For instance, after I take 150 breaths in and then out I know 5 minutes have passed. This would be a subconscious thing that we teach ourselves, not a conscious thing.
I'm tempted to beleive the second option as the first presents some issues with the explanations of how we could know something without really knowing it. But I guess that is what we call instinct. And I also guess that number 2 is actually a working example of instinct, but perhaps this is another issue entirely.
At any rate, it is time for me to log off and get back to work. I have spent much too much time writing this (and my! did that 1/2 hour fly by!).
I can't remember how long ago I heard this. It feels like ages, and so I can't fully vogue for its accuracy, but I once accepted it as a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Since then I have spent a good deal of time pondering time and the passing of it, and I think that perhaps that explanation, while it may have some merit, may not be the whole truth. It doesn't, for instance, explain why "time flies when you're having fun."
The general rule is that time will go quickly whenever you aren't paying attention to it. You're concentrating on work or a project or your friends or activities around you.
What does it mean then to truly lose track of time? If it is all a matter of chemicals then shouldn't we perceive it the same way (regardless of enjoyment level) until the chemicals are altered?
Not to mention, neither of these conditions (chemicals or lack of attention) fully explain how we adjust to certain set time periods. For instance, an hour long drive to work may seem like it takes forever the first week or so, but gradually, while you may still be aware of the time suck out of your overall day, the drive becomes more bearable and you may even find yourself willing to drive to other places that are an hour away that previously you had avoided due to the time.
An hour becomes "not that bad."
You may even experience a "we're there already?" type of feeling.
Particularly when driving I have noticed that the first time you go somewhere it always feels like it takes longer. I suppose it could take a bit longer. You may be going slower, looking for where to go. But really I think it is a matter of what to expect. Once you get a feel for this road then that barn then this turn etc. the trip seems to take less time perhaps because there is less time between something familiar that you are able to recognize.
Meaning simply, that if you are looking for one landmark and then the next, consciously or unconsciously, you are actually taking a bunch of mini trips. I just passed the big blue house... now I'm at the red barn... now I'm at that odd fork in the road... Instead of I left my drive way and am currently in limbo until I reach final destination.
So really, perhaps the wait is not based on our actual perception of time, but how long, the actual minutes, that we are made to feel that we wait. Even counting down to 5 o'clock on a long work day can be somewhat sated by counting down the hours instead of focusing on all the hours between you and the end.
However, I don't think this is full proof either, because this returns our attention to time and we inevitably feel it slow down. Waiting for each second to pass could make 5 minutes last a life time.
This is what is kind of baffling and perhaps why there is the difference between waiting for things to happen, like events or landmarks, and waiting for time itself to happen. The problem is we can tell when events happen, but perhaps we really don't perceive time at all. We only think we do.
In other words, if you can accept that a trip is measured by how many noticeable landmarks we pass, then time is arguably measured by how many events or activities we "pass."
In other words, think of each year as a car trip. There are certain landmarks throughout that we must pass- new years, start of school, St. Patrick's Day and Easter, end of school, a birthday, 4th of July, etc.
The longer any trip is, the longer it takes us to adjust to its landmarks and begin to see it as "not that long" or "fast."
When we are kids we don't fully understand the order of yearly events and are often forced to think about time in terms of years, months, days, hours- concepts in of themselves we may not completely understand yet. There is no true concept until we get a little older when we realize these major holidays or reoccurring life events happen in the same order.
Additionally, unlike a simple road trip, in a year new events can be added and old events can be taken away, making a typical year not quite typical and a little more difficult to adjust to the natural flow and order of.
And if you think about life, or years, as trips, and you realize that the longer the plane or car trip the more times we will need to take it before it begins to feel reasonable, and even more before it becomes not a big deal, and we assume life works in the same way (accepting years as trips) then a year long trip is a very long trip.
But it is also a trip we continue to take, over and over and over. Every year's events becoming slightly more predictable to our subconscious mind. We begin to recognize other things, not just the major holidays or we work in our own little check points (spring cleaning, family reunions etc.) thereby a year soon becomes not too incredibly long to wait for something. And then, a year begins to move faster to us. We feel we are waiting less for the next big event.
And then we find ourselves wondering at Christmas what happened to Easter.
There is also a kind of reverse effect that I am experiencing where time feels like it is moving forward quickly, but instead of that making me feel that Easter was only yesterday, it makes me feel like Easter was years ago. I think it again has to do with how much I am actually doing. How I fill my time.
I guess what I am getting at, though I haven't totally figured it out, is that I don't think we truly understand the concept of time. We don't actually know how to measure a second. We measure time by what we do. So when we do a lot, we feel like a lot of time should have passed (making us surprised when we look up from a productive morning and smile realizing "it's only 11 o'clock!) and when we put our focus into doing on thing, even if that thing is very involved we feel that not a lot of time should have passed (I spend a few hours working on a story or grading papers, so I'm only doing one thing in my mind, so when I look up and realize it's almost time for dinner- time is moving too fast!).
I'm not sure how to explain our internal clocks. Some people have very good eternal clocks and I have a tendency to sometimes have a good internal clock. I can tell when I have surpassed my typical shower length or, if I concentrate really hard before going to sleep I will wake up at 6. I will wake up at 6. I can actually very often wake up at 6.
This leaves me to two possible explanations: 1. our body's understand how long a minute is through consistent training, but our brains are unable to actually process the concept in a way we understand. OR 2. We are still measuring time through a series of events but it is something that we have taught ourselves internally. For instance, after I take 150 breaths in and then out I know 5 minutes have passed. This would be a subconscious thing that we teach ourselves, not a conscious thing.
I'm tempted to beleive the second option as the first presents some issues with the explanations of how we could know something without really knowing it. But I guess that is what we call instinct. And I also guess that number 2 is actually a working example of instinct, but perhaps this is another issue entirely.
At any rate, it is time for me to log off and get back to work. I have spent much too much time writing this (and my! did that 1/2 hour fly by!).
Comments
Post a Comment