Have you noticed that time goes differently?

W

wanderer

Temporal Novice
Good time of day. To be honest, I've never been into this kind of thing, but at one point I came across this resource and I became interested in this topic, it's clear that most likely I'm a fanatic or something like that, but still I'll leave it here, maybe someone had a similar situation, the question itself is in the title of the topic.
Where did I get this impression from?
earlier, back in 2018-2019, it seemed that time goes more smoothly and naturally, but now, from about 2020, I keep in my head the idea that time goes completely wrong as it should go, and you know, I perfectly understand that this is influenced by sleep, nutrition, lifestyle, growing up and other factors but still, this is far from impressionability or some kind of disease, as it may seem at first glance. After talking with our relatives and friends of different ages, we came to the consensus that time has become much faster. Experts in this field, what do you say?
 
The words you say reminds me the words of Bekenstein. Time is relative; it can run slow, run fast; it can squeze, ran very differently in various places but I am not sure about the 2020 syndrome. I attribute this feeling to the Quarantine Process. Bekenstein says, time can run in very different forms each person, each place, each state of mind, each century. Maybe this 2020 syndrome is kind of a thing that almost the whole population get similarly affected.
 
wanderer said:
After talking with our relatives and friends of different ages, we came to the consensus that time has become much faster. Experts in this field, what do you say?
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Time has become much faster than what? What you and your friends experience is the psychological arrow of time. And depending on how you posed the question to them you likely influenced their answers.

By asking has "time has become much faster" you mean has, for example, the non-relativistic half-life of a muon (mu meson) become fundamentally shorter then the answer is no. The rest mass half-life is still ~2.2 *10^-6 seconds. The half-life of a muon is one means by which special relativistic time dilation and length contraction is proven.

Muons are collision by-products of cosmic rays striking nitrogen in the upper atmosphere at the edge of space. With a half-life of 2.2 millionths of a second they should all decay long before they can hit the surface of the earth. But they don't. They are traveling near the speed of light thus are subject to significant relativistic time dilation. From their perspective they still decay in 2.2 millionths of a second - the surface is just a lot closer (relativistic length contraction). From our perspective they travel the same distance but last longer (relativistic time dilation).

If there was a change in how space and time affect each other at the fundamental level (non-relativistic) you and I wouldn't be around to contemplate the consequences. Changing the laws of physics midstream (not discovering new facts about the universe but altering the universe itself) means we long pointy things with two arms and two legs no longer function correctly. Bad juju. Very bad juju for homo sapiens...and everything else in the universe.
 
To expand a bit on my previous answer to your question I'll add some experimental science information.

When an experimental scientist asks a question through some experimental design the hypothesis section will propose an answer to the question. If the scientist is truly ethical (s)he will contemplate not only the expected results but will also explore every implied result. If the implied results point to ridiculous outcomes then the researcher has to consider that the hypothesis is completely wrong or that at a minimum there are problems with the experimental design. The unethical researcher will ignore the inconvenient implications and continue as if they don't exist.

There are examples of how poor research ethics have bad consequences. Duke University has the Rhine Institute parapsychology lab. It investigates parapsychology. But the ethics issue is to get in to the program you first have to be a "believer" of some sort. Thus before you would even start a course of research you have already decided on the answer. All you are doing is seeking confirmation. This is called confirmation bias. The same is true for environmental studies majors. Who gets in to such a program? Believers. There is little chance of unbiased fact finding. There is a huge risk of banishment aka"cancellation" if the student challenges the system. As Bluto said, "Seven years of college down the drain!"
 
When you are one day old, one day is the extent of your lifetime so the day that passes after that represents 100% of your life.
the next day represents 50% of your life, etc.
When you are 5 years old, the next year that passes after that represents 20% of your life. When 10, it's 10%.
When you're 40, the next year that passes represents only 2.5% of your life.
So, in terms related to your lifetime, which is (essentially) your only grasp of time, the time is passing much more quickly the older you get.

But the clocks aren't faster.

Harte
 
Unfortunately, there is no specific answer in the topic to this day. But by about 2035-2036, this answer may appear. Thanks to each author for his opinion.
 
Darby said:
Time has become much faster than what? What you and your friends experience is the psychological arrow of time. And depending on how you posed the question to them you likely influenced their answers.

By asking has "time has become much faster" you mean has, for example, the non-relativistic half-life of a muon (mu meson) become fundamentally shorter then the answer is no. The rest mass half-life is still ~2.2 *10^-6 seconds. The half-life of a muon is one means by which special relativistic time dilation and length contraction is proven.

Muons are collision by-products of cosmic rays striking nitrogen in the upper atmosphere at the edge of space. With a half-life of 2.2 millionths of a second they should all decay long before they can hit the surface of the earth. But they don't. They are traveling near the speed of light thus are subject to significant relativistic time dilation. From their perspective they still decay in 2.2 millionths of a second - the surface is just a lot closer (relativistic length contraction). From our perspective they travel the same distance but last longer (relativistic time dilation).

If there was a change in how space and time affect each other at the fundamental level (non-relativistic) you and I wouldn't be around to contemplate the consequences. Changing the laws of physics midstream (not discovering new facts about the universe but altering the universe itself) means we long pointy things with two arms and two legs no longer function correctly. Bad juju. Very bad juju for homo sapiens...and everything else in the universe.
Click to expand...
You're absolutely right. There can be no question of speeding up or slowing down time if half-live do not change.
 
I get what you’re saying—I've felt the same way, especially since 2020. Back then, everything kind of hit pause, but now it feels like time is in fast-forward. For me, I think it’s because my days started blending together with work, hobbies, and just trying to keep up with everything. The older I get, the quicker years seem to pass too—it’s like when you're a kid, a year feels like forever, but now it’s gone in a blink. You’re definitely not alone in noticing it; I’ve heard friends and family say the same thing.
 
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