Why do we experience time the way we do?

I’ve noticed my experience of time-shifting over the past couple of years, and I started to grow really curious about why this has been the case. 

What do I mean by time? For me, time is about how much fits into a space. But sometimes that space feels long, and sometimes it feels shallow. So what contributes to that?

As I’ve started to read more about time, I have come to understand it’s an incredibly complex topic. 

During the heart of Covid, I remember many people in my community saying how slowly time was moving. As things started to open up, I heard this less. Why and how could that be, I wondered? 

In a recent documentary I watched about time findings from a study done in the UK about how time was perceived during the heart of the lock-down, they showed that your perception of time was influenced by the satisfaction brought from the social interactions we had during this time. This may answer the question about why, as things have opened up and we’ve been able to socialize more, people have expressed that time isn’t moving as slowly. 

As we are more in ourselves and our own minds, it seems that time moves slower, the way our brains map time changes in solitude versus socialization. So when you experience time moving slowly, you could ask yourself if you are satisfied with the company you are keeping: both within yourself and externally. 

I enjoyed the company I had during the heart of Covid, so for me, time felt just about right. Not too quick or too slow. But this explains a lot more for me about the mystery of time and how we experience it.