TL;DR
The feeling that time is speeding up is not a malfunction of some internal clock but a side effect of digital media, which overstimulates us yet starves us of the novel experiences needed to form memories, hollowing out our retrospective sense of time.
From Reddit to the dinner table, more and more people are muttering the same thing: where did the time go? The author says this isn't just whining; there's science behind it. Our sense of time is actually propped up by memory.
No clock in the brain, just counting
Scientists used to assume the brain had an internal clock, but they never found one. Research now suggests we tell time by 'counting': the more changes we perceive, the longer time feels.
Scrolling: endless in the moment, blank in hindsight
By that logic, watching short videos should stretch time. But the opposite happens: the content is so repetitive that the brain barely registers it. Looking back, there's nothing to remember, so it feels like 'time vanished without doing anything'.
Boredom: the soil of memory
The brain needs quiet gaps to file experiences into memory. Researchers find that idle, boring moments are exactly when memories form. Yet modern society treats boredom as the enemy of efficiency.
The researchers call for holding platforms accountable, and they also remind individuals: don't fill every spare minute. Put down the phone, allow yourself to space out — that might be the first step to reclaiming your sense of time. After all, boring moments are the most fertile soil for memory.
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