Those are all interesting thoughts. I'm sixty-one, and I noticed how time seemed to be speeding up while I was going through my twenties and thirties. That was in the '80s and '90s, which was before the social media and streaming age. I was even completely off television from 1982 to 1998. I've also been single all my life and pretty much a homebody. I have always thought time seems to speed up because each succeeding year is a smaller fraction of our total time of consciousness. When we turn four years old, that next year is one-fifth of our total time of consciousness, so it seems huge and to go by slowly relative to our total experience. But when we turn twenty-five or sixty-one, the next year adds only a twenty-sixth or sixty-second, respectively, to our total conscious experience, making it seem fast. That's just a theory I've held without any scientific reference whatsoever, so it's probably specious.

I found this a very interesting perspective. For quite a long time I have worked solely from the assumption that time passes so quickly as we get older due to the absence of novelty. Meaning, our brains rarely latch on to what is uninteresting - brushing your teeth, for example. I have probably brushed my teeth thousands of times at this point, but I can't recall a single particular memory of doing it. It all melts together. With so much saturation of stimulus, I feel like I just check out of most of it - making time seem to pass too quickly. It's a hazard of growing older in an overly stimulated world. So, creating rituals around certain activities seems like a really good way to slow things down again. Thanks for that.

Yes, to be present in the ritual of whatever your current activity may be. How getting ready for a night out was special and had a certain feeling to it, or preparing a meal can be a respite of calm with some nice music and someone to chat with while you do it, dusting your tchotchkes could give you time to nest your home and rekindle memories from them, choose yours. Maybe it explains people recently becoming obsessed in their coffee ritual or tea ritual or nurturing their sourdough like a lifestyle, as it brings them into the moment. Now we are in a rush to get to the good stuff so to speak, to tick off that box then on to the next. Also, everyone is obsessed with optimization and efficiency to a fault that puttering around losing yourself in a task is foreign, some not even physically capable of it.

Just last week, I began to feel very nostalgic for DVDs. So I went to the library and picked out a few. I realized it was the ritual I missed. Having limited options to chose from, the act of setting everything up. I miss that. I've also found myself drawn to making tea, again for the ritual aspects. I subscribe to the idea that there is freedom in restriction. When there are too many choices one gets lost in the choosing and feels great pressure to consume even more. Great talk, as always.

The quote you mention at the end really explains a recent realization I have come to in life. "It is not the absence of ties, but ties themselves that set us free". "Ties" were always something I had tried to avoid because I felt they got in the way of the things that were currently important to me (school, grades, etc.). I would tell myself I couldn't go to an event or party or meet my friend because it would take too much time away from my goals/responsibilities. So as a result, all of my time would be spent on studying/homework. Recently I decided that I needed to challenge myself to make time for these events and parties and friend meetups. So I started out committing to meeting my friends on a weekly basis and signing up for volunteer events and I told myself I would have to figure out how to make it work. What I found is that I was able to make it work; I still got all of my obligations taken care of and was able to have fun. I found that I was keeping myself too busy with school and that incorporating more "ties" into my life was the solution to my problem. The "ties" really did in fact set me free.

I've had my own thoughts on this for awhile. To me, everything moves in a cyclical nature. Some things are slower to reach the cycle's completion/restart, but the point is that it does meet it. An important aspect of the cyclical nature of all things is what I call "The Death Step" that creates the fulfillment, gratitude, conclusion, and the weight of the memory itself. Coming back to the movie example, I personally think that watching the credits all the way through is the means of stepping on and completing The Death Step, because it gives you the chance to honor those who made the movie itself, allows you to reminisce in the soundtrack of the movie(which allows you to relive parts of the movie), and allows you to complete the process of watching the movie(this is because there could be additional scenes at the end and the credits are essentially the last scene of the movie). I could go on and on, but I agree that there needs to be a sort of honoring ritual to the events in our life, even if they're small rituals, to create a feeling of fulfillment from the scenes in our life that create our memories.

A brilliant video Robin. Since watching your videos, I have set myself 2 routines every day in the past several months: (1) coffee in the morning followed by reading philosophy or science books and (2) walking in the park in the afternoons listening to philosophy audiobooks. These routine really help to read more books and slow things down. Cheers and keep up the good work!

You are right on. Recently my anxiety has been elevated due to school of course but also because I’ve been spending more time on my phone to cope with that anxiety which in turn makes it worse. I’ve been doing my regular hobbies like reading and watching movies, but like you said, it feels forgettable at times and I think the point of a lack of ritualism is very accurate. We as humans enjoy having rituals even from a toddler age. I’m going to try to be more mindful of this and see if it can slow down time and ease my anxiety from the fast pace that seems to cause my stress.

We appreciate how you've articulated your own thoughts and insights on this matter. Keep working hard.

That whole narrative and conclusion thing reminds me of something I wrote in my journal a while back, about how in order for something to make it into your precious nostalgia, it has to end.

It's such a funny coincidence that I just got back from the cinema, where I went to with my friends. The example that you provided is just so interesting to me, because whenever I watch a movie, I usually get inspired to do more. So rather than feeling a sense of end to something, I rather feel an urge to take what I saw and utilise it right away. I feel like as soon as something happens to me I just feel the obligation to create something out of it, sucking out that joy of just being present and just feeling and thinking. I feel like I owe it to myself to let myself just be present and let things end and begin how they naturally do. I'm not even sure if what I wrote makes really sense, but I just wanted to thank you for this video, because it made me reflect on my attitude regarding time and it's true value.

Leisure, the Basis of Culture!!!! Josef Pieper

Actually it was a thing that i feel everytime i spend time on social media. Suddenly i just spent 1hour witouth notice. Now that i almost dont watch news and only about 10 mins of social networks i actually feel i have a lot more time. And when i read, tge time seems to be prolongued and not only tgat but i remember what happened in that time (the story, the characters...) On 1hour instagram i never remembered what i watched and actually that was what contributed to make seem tgat time was passing faster. The less you remember, the faster time seems to pass

Been chronically online since 2015 and time really did fly these past 8 years.

Amazing!

I have health problems that would be directly aggravated by covid, so the past three years for me have been... that paradoxical super fast and eternal that folks experienced during lockdown, bc that's effectively what I have to do forever now. I don't have much to look forward to for the opposite reason you've stated: my schedule is empty, because even in my own house, I struggle to fill my days without exhausting myself. I think managing to quit all social media other than KZfaq (which barely counts, tbh) has helped. But I'm still... There's so much I *should* be doing, deadlines that make a funny 'whoosh' as they fly by, belying how much I've screwed myself over by missing them, but not the energy to catch them all, or fix mistakes, and yet a constant feeling of boredom. Sometimes I can push it off, but often I find myself not engaged and/or too tired to care, anyway. Without landmarks for memory building, less time is catalogued in memory, too, so while I know it's been 3y, I'm constantly still surprised folks are like. Out. Doing things. Have done things. That new things are coming out, that folks act as if the danger is gone. To me, who even vaccinated/boostered, really can't afford to risk it, it still feels like 2019 was last year, essentially. Because there's so little to remember since then.

Thank you for this video! This was so insightful...me and my sibling were discussing the exact thing this morning and you summed everything up nicely

Honestly brilliant essay Robin. I really enjoyed it and felt like I got something tangible out of it. I'm looking forward to seeing more videos like this where you take your time and give us an amazing piece of food for thought

This was excellent. I'm not used to this style of content so I am really enjoying your videos. Keep it up.

I think our perception of time is relative to our current age. For instance; to a person of 50 years old, 1 year is 2% of their life so far. To someone who's only 10, a year is 10%. - five times more. It's no wonder kids are always asking "Are we there yet?"

Astute observations on a very interesting topic. These kinds of thoughts are why I’ve been wanting to read In Search of Lost Time, since from what I understand its main themes are about time and memories.

If you haven't already could you please start a podcast or put this in audio format. Your voice is both commanding and calming and I feel like you interviewing people along with the essays would be amazing. Thank you.

Seriously I thank you for making this video. Please never stop making video essays.

I’m enjoying all your videos immensely. Thank you for your wonderful channel, your knowledge and your love of literature ❤ English is my second language. ❤ Thank you Robin.

I am just loving your channel! I did a TV fast in September 2023 and so when that month was over, I decided that I am only going to watch TV two nights a week. You've given me not only yet another great book to study, but some good food for thought. Thank you!

Love the video. Also the painting in the back: what is the title/painter?! 🖌

You've talked about rituals and the burdens that come before performing (attending?) those while referring to time and that's a thing Byung-Chul Han really excels at because he can always expand on what he references on a later work - that's both the case here. In "The Disappearance of Rituals" he writes about, well, the disappearance of rituals which serve as reference in time, like objects would do in space (thus that experience of feeling lost in time); while "The Palliative Society" and "The Expulsion of the Other" deal with the modern society aversion to negative emotions like pain and the unknown, trying to simply erase them instead of learning how to deal with them. Let's put it this way: The experience of buying a new BCH book online and waiting until it arrives before I can learn to look at something from a new perspective is always a great time.

Stewart Brand wrote about this at the end of the last millennium in “The Clock Of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility”. We’re living in the future of the 1950s and ‘60s. The problem, as time progressed from then, is the future did not progress too as time passed.

Time perception is a byproduct of memory and eye movements. When we stare at our phones all day, our brains does not record it our memories because it is routine. Thus time seems shorter because of a shorter memory reel from our phone staring. If we spend 4 hours a day staring at our phones, rhe say feels 12 hours long We make thousands of eye movementa per minute. Each eye moment captures a moment into our memory. If an eye movement i fixated too long, nothing gets recorded into our memories. there are far less eye movements when staring at our phones. And more eye fixations. There are fewer images get captured by our eyes when lookkng at our phones

I am going to ask my boyfriend of 7 years on date this Friday. I'm going to dress up, do my makeup, and find a nice place for us to go eat. I am looking forward to it :)

the moment I heard "ritual" i knew it was gona be based off a Byung-Chul Han book

Do you think the idea of not having thresholds could be an issue with/of differénce?

Hello Robin As an English literature graduate who never was really into his or her course of study in the first 2/3 years in school, but started picking up interest in the final year, but discovers that so much has been missed, and now desires to build a career in literature. What would you suggest such persons do? Thank you Sir

Maybe instead of goalposts I need trail markers. I never perfect a task/project so I never feel like it's done, so I don't get that period of downtime and I don't remember any part of the process. Something for me to think about.

The Idea of a University by Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman (Leader of the Oxford Movement/Fellow of Oriel/ Cardinal/Saint)

Don't say "good-bye". Say "see you next time". 😊

"A crammed schedule is sometimes always better than an empty one" huh??

Nice suit

yeah, having a scheduled activity on your life actually makes your perception of time going slower

My friend, you should understand the times we live in, and the differences between Kairos time, and Chronos time. We're heading to the end of an era, and Kairos is in control, that's why everyone feels time moving faster, it has nothing to do with getting older. Every single being is experiencing the same. You'd need to learn some metaphysics in order to understand it, but you'll get the basics by doing a quick search about kairos and chronos. Kali Yuga is another keyword.

Could you please suggest me a brain wash of someone type book. I searched it everywhere of but can't find it.

Dopamine fasting is the solution for me. Doing nothing than thinking for a day each month.

This is our decision to live fast and die young 😅

Wait till you're 60, kiddos. It's all a blur.

Unfortunately, we live in a time of techno-feudalism.

Let's not compare OUR childhood with adulthood. Instead actually compare our parents and grandparents adulthood with our adulthood. That will be real informational comparision b

Thank you so much for your presentation of Byung-Chun Han´s book. However, your video is a microcosmos of exactly what Han is alerting us not to do. The way you are packing all of that wisdom of him and yours too, is neurotic, it has neither ritual nor thresholds. The editing of your phrases is against the whole preaching of what we should do with time.

Orgasm is a threshold so I guess a life without thresholds is anticlimactic nevertheless tense with no possibility 4 release, consequently also no creativity no birth no rebirth

I think that is another jump for the human being 🏃🚶🧍