As the ball dropped this New Year’s Eve, thousands of people celebrated the arrival of 2026. I watched from my couch, hugging everyone as the cries of “Happy New Year!” spread through my family. Only later did I realize something that almost broke my brain:
2016 was 10 years ago.
I thought about this all of New Year’s Day, and in the evening, I remembered a conversation I frequently have with my mother. We talk about her childhood or her early jobs, but the important part comes at the end: A shrug and an “I still feel like I’m 30”.
Naturally, I wanted to dive deeper on this subject. How could I vividly recall a memory from when I was 7 but barely remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday?
As it turns out, human processing of time is really weird. According to Psychology Today, time appears to pass slower when our brains take in more information because our brains are working hard to process new knowledge.
When we’re kids, we are experiencing the world for the first time. Viewing the world through unfiltered eyes, our brains rapidly work to process all the new experiences and information that we absorb.
As we get older, our view of life becomes duller. We tend to recognize more experiences, so our brains don’t have to work to process the new information; as a result, time passes quicker, simply because the monotony of life has become familiar.
The solution? Learn.
Instead of doomscrolling, read a book. Rather than playing a video game to fill five minutes, maybe open up Duolingo. When you engage your mind, your sense of time is lengthened, giving the illusion of time passing slower.
Yes, it is hard to wrap your head around the fact that 2016 was already a decade ago. Galaxy print and rainbow food is sadly a thing of the past. However, if we engage our brains and use the next decade to focus on improving ourselves, maybe 2036 won’t come quite so quickly.
