Eli5: Why, if at all, does it seem like the years go quicker as you get older?

Question

I hear a lot of people making that remark, that the years go by quicker as you get older.
For me, at least, it seems like that’s only the case if nothing much changes in my life in that year.
To me, years seem to feel like they go slower if there’s lots of new/different things happening.

In: 348

Answer 1

Probably because as you get older there are less and less things that are new for you and life starts to get repetitive. And our brains tend to vividly memorize only the important events so as you get older it feels that time passed faster because gaps between important events get longer and longer.