Exploring our perceptions of time

It was 1989, the year I had been born. The Walkman was all the rage, ‘Just Say No’ campaigns in full force, the Berlin Wall in pieces, and a future NBA icon by the name of Michael Jordan was about to become a household name.

As the shot clock struck the one second mark in a pivotal game between Chicago and Cleveland for hopes of advancing in the playoffs, Michael Jordan could be seen midair in that moment — ball rolling off the tips of his fingers, as he glided, seemingly suspended in time.

MJ took the inbound pass, split the defenders toward the free throw line, and hung in the air long enough for a third Cavalier to pass by. The shot went through the net as the buzzer went off, crushing the championship hopes of Cleveland fans — Reshef Mashraky

In that moment, Jordan led his team to win 101–100 and begin to etch his legacy in the annals of NBA history. If we were to ask him much time had passed as the ball sailed through the air, arcing like a rainbow atop a scintillating sea of camera flashes and open jaws, I’m sure he would describe it as feeling like an eternity, as would any engaged spectator. To the indifferent eye, however, it was a mere flash of a moment.

I’ve written at length about our perceptions of time — how time is weaved into the fabric of our existence, how we ought to unshackle ourselves from the clock or claim time rather than race against it. It’s a fickle thing to co-exist with, one that dominates us as much as it stokes our curiosities.

As much as time is this uncontrollable guiding force that the entire universe seems subjected to, there is one thing that time cannot always seem to subjugate — our conscious perception.

We seem to take it for granted — the way in which we’re able to perceptually extend time when we need it most. It’s a testament to the tremendous power of our mind and, perhaps more interestingly, the many things we’re only beginning to grasp along with the many more things we don’t even know with respect to how the mind really works, and what sorts of potential and capability it holds.

“Our guess is that during the motor preparation, visual information processing in the brain is enhanced. So, maybe, the amount of information coming in is increased. That makes time be perceived longer and slower. — Nobuhiro Hagura

We’ve all experienced this at some point — it’s common to hear of it occurring during car accidents, for instance. Athletes will also attest to their experience with it. During certain moments of immersive intensity, time slows to a crawl and the brain is able to process information at an exponentially more rapid rate, hinting at an undetectable super-human quality that we only wish we could exploit and command at our will.

I experience it myself on a regular basis. Mountain biking seems to provide me with these glimmering moments of breakneck (or collarbone) decision making ability, whereby I notice a tremendous increase of my reaction time. There are countless split second decisions that must be made — to turn around this rock, to hop that log, to swerve left or right around this trench, to slow down or go faster given that particular decline or terrain.

“Time is an illusion.” ― Albert Einstein

Playing ultimate frisbee or football too — hucking a disc or a ball and watching it sail through the grasping hands of defenders and into the cradled arms of a receiver in the end zone — watching this unfold in a way that doesn’t abide by the laws of time. What feels like ten seconds is really only three. It’s a measly comparison, no doubt, possibly even fickle enough to not warrant any consideration. But, to me anyway, it’s something phenomenal because of what it stands to mean.

Although we accept time as an objective law of nature, it is interesting to see how subjective it may really be; how much time itself depends on our perception. Fans and players of a team trailing by a slim margin in a game will surely feel time moving faster than those who are ahead and can’t wait for the clock to run out. Time moves much slower in classrooms than it does when we’re doing something entirely engaging. Then there’s the often-touted truism about time fleeting ever faster as we age. Effectively, our perception of time means something.

Researchers have documented that time really seems to move faster for seniors in comparison to young adults or teenagers; examining linguistics, it was noted that time had been perceived as a fleeting and uncontrollable force for older people and more of a static and motionless law of nature for younger people. Rightfully so, it makes sense — it seems like we’ll never reach the long-sought achievement of graduation, of getting our license, of being free; on the other hand, kids grow so fast, decades at a career move so quickly and the end of certain roads always approach much too soon.

So what do we do with this realization?

Unfortunately, we can’t really bend time to our will — at least not in an objectively tangible sense. While it may necessitate an apology for the deceiving title of this post, it doesn’t mean that we ought to stop there in following our curiosity.

We can aim to perceive time differently. Because it’s proven to be susceptible to the nature of our subjectivity, we can utilize this fact to our advantage. To not struggle against the ticking of a clock, to own moments for ourselves, to understand how time is entwined with nature around us and to command our perceptions of it.

“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” ― Jean de La Bruyère

William James, psychologist, theorized that time passes faster at a younger age because we measure time by ‘firsts’ — our first day of school, for instance, and that the lack of fresh experiences at an older age causes a blending and dulling of time, that a lack of excitement brings about a smudged but rapid progression through time.

It makes intangible sense. Consider a vacation that is jam packed with a multitude of sights and excursions — though time during said vacation may pass quickly as we’re rushing from point A to point B, looking back it seems like we had inexplicably squeezed a month into a week. Compare this to a week spent at a resort, doing little but being serenaded by the tides and seeing the same buffet, view, and resort setting day after day — the entire experience will have felt like only a handful of days.

We can thus begin to use time wisely. Understanding that it appears more fleeting at an older age, we can cast aside notions that we’ve done everything that there is to do and ever-more embark on adventures. We can rid ourselves of the idea that our best days are behind us, or that we’re too young to understand something, or that there’s no time to do what we want to do.

“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why” — Kurt Vonnegut

Lastly, we can see importance of grounding ourselves in the present, of not working under concerns for the past nor the future. Of experiencing as much as possible in the present tense as a means of perceptually extending time.

What it comes down to, really, is just configuring our awareness.

The words of Michael Jordan, spoken only two minutes after that game winning throw now dubbed “The Shot”, may encapsulate the meaning of this post in the best and most simple way:

“I live for this moment…”

Read On: Lost in [head] Space

Sources

https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/

http://www.sportsretriever.com/stories/21-greatest-moments-sports-history/

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/why-does-time-fly-as-we-get-older/

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