Does it make you feel old to know, that the year 2000 is as far removed from 2022, as 2000 was from 1978?

I wasn’t but now I am thanks.

Going from 1978 to 2000 took about three times as long as going from 2000 to 2022. Either the world has speeded up or I have slowed down.

Yeah, I do sometimes think about this very phenomenon.
On paper it’s so abundantly clear.
In ‘78 I was 11 years old.
So I went from 11 to 33, and from 33 to 55.
11 – 33 – 55.
In my mind, the first 22 years lasted 130 years, and the second 22 years about 8 months….

@flutherother
Oh, the world has definitely sped up. You got 24/7 availability, the internet and social media constantly bombarding you with news and fake news, in entertainment there is so much content, so much new content on a regular basis, that you jump from show to show, from film to film, that you can not let what you watch sink in and simmer, and with online-shopping, you can order everything and have it delivered next day.
Back then, if you wanted to look something up, you had to go to the library, or literally buy an encyclopedia.
You wanted to watch a movie, you needed to wait until it was on TV, record it onto VHS, or go to the VHS rental store.
You wanted music, you had to rely on the radio, tape it, or buy a record, a cassette, or a CD.
You wanted to buy something, you had to go to the store, or get a catalogue, order via phone, and then wait for several days or even weeks for it to arrive.
Someone wanted to reach you, they had to do it via post, landline phone, or come to your door.
Now, everything is literally at your fingertips, available instantly, no matter the time and place.
There is no time anymore to slow down.

Yes, it goes by faster as you get older, I think. What makes me feel older is seeing my friends turn gray and cancelling plans to watch the grandbabies.

@rebbel Just wait for the 55–77…it only takes 5 seconds…you blink & it’s over!!!

I don’t feel old but rather experienced.
There are patterns in History a rise, a fall, an evenness inbetween.
Every era in History shows that much like the phases of a movie nowadays.
We are all following a script of our own making.
I was only 30 years old in 1978 and much had happened to enhance my life experienc wether good or bad is irrelevant, as its a a journey of learning from mistakes and overcomming difficulties that make us all stronger for it.
Ans so it is in life cylces of world events too.

I led a busy life, and because of it I honestly did not think myself old. Now of course there are mirrors in my house and I knew my actual age, but it was another repetition of the defining characteristic of my life; I just was not paying attention. I can remember one day sitting in the barber chair noticing all that white hair cascading toward the floor back when I was around 66. I’d adjusted to the black hair interspersed with grey on the previous trips to the barber. Both times, I realized how significant the time I spent in that chair was as a chance for quiet reflection. But tne interlude would end and like the bell at the boxing ring, “clang” and back to punching my way through life. I was 68 one morning when the wife was away on some junket. And one of my habits when she is away is to go to the movies to catch films I am eager to see that she either cares nothing about or views with contempt. I always try to hit the morning runs because the theaters are often virtually empty. It’s heaven. The popcorn is fresh, and the place is the cleanest its going to be for the day. The wife HATES going in the mornings. I don’t get it, but never mind. Here’s what counts. I was at the ticket window, cash in hand when the girl behind the window grinned and through a cute mouth crammed with gum said “senior right?” The processing pause was brief, but her grin transformed to a look of concern almost surely due to my own change of expression as the realization hit me. I blurted out “son of a bitch!” And she stood up and squealed “what’s the matter? Are you ok,?” And I broke out laughing as I explained that I was just pissed at the realization that I had missed out on better than a decade of senior discounts. Even as I talked, I was visualizing all that money on meals shows, etc. Shit, even the car wash has senior discounts, and idiot me must have read that senior discount sign 50 times since I legitimately qualified without once realizing “THAT’S ME!” Anyway, the point to this rambling tale is that since I’ve stopped working it is absolutely impossible to ever forget that I’m old. It’s emphasized and reinforced at every turn I take. I’m not impaired physically, and people tell me I don’t look my age except for the snow white head of hair, but people assume that I will shatter like crystal if bumped. I took a friend of ours to a medical clinic a couple of weeks back for her doctor’s appointment and wheel chairs were shoved at both of us. My daughter in law is nagging my son to remove the ladders from my house because he told her I was on the roof inspecting the work of the roofers. Life is a carnival.

@flutherother: It absolutely feels that way. For me, 1971 to 1991 felt like a lifetime with so many changes. 2000 to 2020 went by in a blip and feels roughly the same throughout.

I get the percentage of time vs. your age calculation, but the amount of change in my first twenty years was astounding to me.

@HP Wow! Good read. May I suggest… Hide your mirrors stay young.

As a child your perception of time is that of a child. You are moving fast, time is moving
slow ie a school year might be 20% of your whole life.

As you age, a year might be 5% of your whole. To you time is moving fast, you are moving
slow. Strange. There are ways to counteract this perception. Make plans way ahead
a vacation in 12 months, a concert in 10 months, a hair salon in 3 months etc. Use a
large wall calendar. Very important because we are working on your perception of time.

Magically you will become a child again and time will slow down.
Waiting is hard at any age.

Boy does somebody have a LOT to learn about aging & I hope they enjoy the journey!!!

It isn’t the “1978 to 2000” that makes me feel old, it is that all the 9/11 babies (kids born 9 months after 9/11) are now old enough to drink.

I have gotten in the habit of saying “back in the 19 hundreds” to refer to the late 20th century. It isn’t the distance between years, as much as the acceleration of changes in the last 20 years compared to the rate of change from 1965 to 1995.

My high school was one of the first to have computer programming class in 1972. But the use of computers didn’t really go anywhere until PCs became common in the early 90s. Most businesses (other than big corporations) did not have widespread computer use until the mid 90s.

Try explaining the Y2K panic to someone under 35. They will look at you like you are crazy.

Nope, because what most of you youngsters don’t know, is that in 1978, Disco was just starting and already going strong!

Disco and its disciples will never die! ;-D

^^ Never is a long, long time. I’d rephrase that to Disco will not die until the last disciple dies!!!

You do realize that when our generation dies that a LOT of wonderful things will die with us don’t you???

You do realize that my post wasn’t serious, don’t you? Hence the ;-D at the end.

Oops…I forgot my ;-D…There ya go!!!

Wasn’t 2000 just a few years ago?!

And 1974, the year I graduated high school, wasn’t all that long ago. But where did all these younger generations come from all of a sudden? When did I become a senior? up in years?

@LadyMarissa You do realize that when our generation dies that a LOT of wonderful things will die with us don’t you

Yes…just as our parents realized, and their parents realized, and…well, you know. Makes me kinda sad. 8`(

When someone mentions “30 years ago”, I immediately, for the briefest second, think they mean sometime in the 1970’s.

Nooooo.

All I know is from 2005 till now seems like it has been forever. Well, I don’t really remember 2005 I was a baby but I kinda remember 2010 or so was so long ago. I hear you guys talking about some of the things my grams and gramps talk about and I wonder how you did stuff way back then. Everything seems so much harder and more tedious.

Thanks, loli. I already did feel old. That’s because I am. What’s more, I probably remember 1978 better than I do 2000.

I remember the bicentennial in 1976. Then 200 years seemed like a really long time.
No, close to celebrating this country’s 250th anniversary, 250 seems like nothing.

What startled me was realising that the day I began working is as distant from me now as the start of the First World War was to me then.