It freaks me out. That's no surprise. And I feel like it's just accelerating. 2 weeks ago I came back from Thanksgiving Break. That went pretty damn fast. And now in one week i'm looking at a two-week semester break. That'll go by just as quickly as these past two weeks and then the second half the academic year begins: Spring 2013.
I read something last year regarding time feeling like its "speeding up" or "flying by" because around then was when I was really curious to the explanation behind this phenomenon. Is it just all in our heads? Is it a product of modernization and its affects on our daily lives that make things seem repetitive and relatively inactive?
To sum up what I read:
When you're younger (1-12 ish) there's so much stuff going on that your brain has yet to analyze. Everything is new. Experiences you've never had/felt before are all coming to you at an alarming rate. So what does this mean?
Hypothetically, let's say that a person (aged 1-12 or so) is going through a time interval of 5 seconds. Within those 5 seconds of time, the person's brain is processing events A, B, and C. All of that in 5 seconds. So therefore those 5 seconds feel pretty long.
Now we take an adult, aged 25, for example. Within the same 5 second interval, that person's brain is only processing event D since events A, B, and C have already been processed - those events are nothing new and your brain practically skips right over them. SO in 5 seconds all that's been done was event D. In the same amount of time, less was done. Therefore those 5 seconds felt pretty short. It happened quickly as there was much less to process.
I'd think that if this theory is correct, the the idea that it's a "product of modernization. . ." could be a pretty accurate explanation to our fast-paced lives (not literally, but mentally).
____
On the topic of time "flying by," what are your thoughts? Do yo have some theory as to why it's occurring? Or what if you're not experiencing this feeling?