Time Flies

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Why half of the life you experience is over by age 7


Have you ever observed that time seems to be going by faster as you get older?

There's a reason that one summer seems to stretch out forever when you're a kid, but zips by before you know it when you're 30. That reason is perspective, as a gorgeous interactive visualization, by Austrian designer Maximilian Kiener, demonstrates.

When you're one year old, a year is literally forever to you -- it's all the time that you've ever known. But as you grow older, one year is a smaller and smaller fraction of your total life. It's like watching something shrink in your rear view mirror.

This idea has stunning implications. It means that parents actually see their children grow up much faster than children perceive themselves to be.

It means that waiting 24 days for Christmas at age 5 literally feels like waiting a year at age 54. It might also explain why kids on car trips are always asking that annoying question, "Are we there yet?" A car journey actually feels longer to kids than it does to adults.

It's a simple concept, but the feeling is explained beautifully by Kiener's interactive. The interactive has you painstakingly scroll through each year, and experience how time seems to speed up as you "get older."

For example, when you are one year old, a year is 100 percent of your life.

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