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Original poster

Does anyone else find the passage of time really odd and confusing? What year does it feel like to you really?

166 replies

Timeandspaceidiocy · 15/08/2023 17:42

Five years ago in one way sounds like not that much but also like a solid block of time, but in reality was 2018 which doesn't seem that long ago. Then I think of covid and suddenly 2018 does seem like a different era completely. But still, not like a long ago time.

Then if I think say back to the Olympics in 2012 - that's obviously over a decade ago now - well in 2012, 2007 seemed fucking ages and ages ago then. Even though there's only 5 years between 2007 and 2012, the same as there is between 2018 and 2023.

2012 itself feels like ages and ages and ages ago to me. 2007 seems almost like a different period in human history.

But. It also kinda feels like we "should" maybe be at say 2009 or 2010 by now. My brain can't fully compute it's 2023. I don't feel it was that long ago since I was at uni.

I'm in my late thirties so fully suspect this is one of the side effects of not being a spring chicken anymore Grin

But does anyone else feel like this?

How do you feel about time passing?

Looking back does it all make sense chronologically to you or seem weird and like it jumps around?

OP posts:
fuchiaknickers · 16/08/2023 21:04

MistressoftheDarkSide · 15/08/2023 23:01

This is a really interesting thread….. I do think technology has something to do with it, especially the 24/7 nature of it.

I’m 54 but I like to think I’m fairly up to date with films and celebrities etc but every so often it seems that famous people just pop up out of nowhere….. I mean, when did people like Bill Gates, Zuckerberg and Elon Musk suddenly appear to be the centre of the Universe?

And I totally agree with the PP who referenced how you used to be able to identify each decade reasonably clearly but since 2000 it has seemed like one big melting pot of everything….

I remember my Nana telling me about her war time experiences and it seemed relatively recent in the 70s and 80s….now it seems like ancient history….. probably not explaining that one very well but I know what I mean lol …

I saw a meme about how in the 60s everyone was into vinyl, then it went through 8 tracks, cassettes, CDs, MP3s and now vinyl is all the rage again….. it’s all very weird …..

Strange and interesting times eh? Especially when we’re at a point where we’re plugged in pretty much all the time to information and these days we can’t even tell how much of it is true…..

I find the concept of the Mandela Effect very fascinating - I absolutely agree that our memories can be faulty, but Dolly’s braces? That’s a hill I’d die on 😹

D’you think it could be because there was more cultural definition “back then”?
Everyone listened to the same music, wore the same fashions, watched the same film and TV. So when the pop cultural ‘era’ changed, we got a sense of time progressing?

Now people live in less of a monoculture there is less to mark the passage of time perhaps?

Just theorising!

NumberFortyNorhamGardens · 16/08/2023 21:11

fuchiaknickers · 16/08/2023 20:57

Will time slow down if I work out more and lose a few lb then? 🤔

Show quote history

Dunno, but time definitely goes slower when you’re puffing and pouring sweat over the cross-trainer. Those last few minutes take for-bleedin’-ever. 😖

Jamtartforme · 16/08/2023 21:15

fuchiaknickers · 16/08/2023 20:53

Same age as you, and feel the same.

I have always felt a bit this way though, even as a child! There’s this line in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks where Mr Brown says “After all, this is the 20th Century”! And my mind was blown that it was still the 20th Century (only just - about 1995 😂) and then I remember saying to my mum “but the second world was was SO LONG AGO” and she was like “no, it was when I was a baby”

and then I think that 1945 was just 39 years before I was born. And I’m 38 now, so basically the same span of time I have lived through is the gap between WW2 and my lifetime.

It’s all so weird.

Omg, I’m in my 30s but my parents were in their mid 20s when I was born so WW2 was well over. It didn’t occur to me that it’s biologically possible for somebody my age to have a parent who was alive during WW2 🤯 mind blown!

minou123 · 16/08/2023 21:37

I'm so pleased I'm notbthe only one.

I regularly forget about 2010 to 2020.
If someone says "2006", I think, that was 7 years ago.

But the worst reality check was from my friend's 16 year old daughter.
She asked me what year I was born.
When I said 1981, she dryly commented,
"Oh, so, in the late 1900s".

I was bloody furious- only because she is bloody right 😤
I think she got it from tik tok.
gen z think its really funny to refer to us as being born in the 1900s, because it winds us up. 😁

Sisterthesame · 16/08/2023 21:40

@Thankweyou as a newlywed, DH and I had a drunken bath together that NYE and then danced in the street with our new neighbours at midnight while loads of fireworks went off.

@Jamtartforme My Mother was a bit older when she had me as was my Grandmother, my Grandmother was a Victorian and I’m mid fifties.

fuchiaknickers · 16/08/2023 22:13

Jamtartforme · 16/08/2023 21:15

Omg, I’m in my 30s but my parents were in their mid 20s when I was born so WW2 was well over. It didn’t occur to me that it’s biologically possible for somebody my age to have a parent who was alive during WW2 🤯 mind blown!

Show quote history

Yep, she was born in 1945 and was 39 having me. My dad was born in 1938 and remembered rationing and gas masks and bomb shelters! As usual, I wish I’d asked him more about it before he died.

user78262102928 · 16/08/2023 22:30

fuchiaknickers · 16/08/2023 22:13

Yep, she was born in 1945 and was 39 having me. My dad was born in 1938 and remembered rationing and gas masks and bomb shelters! As usual, I wish I’d asked him more about it before he died.

Show quote history

I have teenage kids (15 and 16) … and yet two of my grand parents were born in the 1800s

Researching my family tree absolutely blew my mind as to how much time could be linked by 3 generations.

JudgeJ · 17/08/2023 13:42

I started teaching in 1970 in an 11-18 school so many of those pupils are now retired!!!! Recently I met up with a couple of people I'd last seen 36 years ago, in a couple of years time, 2025 it will be a quarter of a century since all the hysteria about the Millennium Bug, surely that can't be true, it was just a few years ago.

CheetosCheerios · 17/08/2023 14:00

I spent yesterday shopping for ‘retro’ low-rise Y2K jeans with my teen DD (Apparently the 90s trend is over).

I felt OLD.

Dalekjastninerels · 17/08/2023 14:01

Dad's parents were born in the Edwardian Era and Mum's parents in the 1920's; Mum second oldest of 12, Dad youngest of 4.

Grandad (on Dad's side) told me he wore a dress and had long hair as a very small boy; which was common before WW1.

SoCentralRain · 17/08/2023 16:18

minou123 · 16/08/2023 21:37

I'm so pleased I'm notbthe only one.

I regularly forget about 2010 to 2020.
If someone says "2006", I think, that was 7 years ago.

But the worst reality check was from my friend's 16 year old daughter.
She asked me what year I was born.
When I said 1981, she dryly commented,
"Oh, so, in the late 1900s".

I was bloody furious- only because she is bloody right 😤
I think she got it from tik tok.
gen z think its really funny to refer to us as being born in the 1900s, because it winds us up. 😁

Omg I too was born in the late 1900s. That's done it for me 😭

Jamtartforme · 17/08/2023 18:02

Late 1900s! The cheeky fuckers!

minou123 · 17/08/2023 18:15

I'm.so sorry @SoCentralRain and @Jamtartforme , have I ruined your day 😂

These teenagers are proper gob shites, but they make me laugh.
Late 1900s indeed.

PurpleButterflyWings · 17/08/2023 18:51

Well I was born in the MID 1900s!!! 😂 Eeee I feel proper old now! Shock

mrlistersgelfbride · 17/08/2023 19:27

Late 1900s! Awful 😂

Yep I feel all this too.
I realised today it was 20 years since I got my A level results. That was still a few years after the millennium.

Boomboom22 · 17/08/2023 19:43

Tbf people born in the late 1900s could be 1998 or 1999 as well so not even 25 yet 🙃

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