Temporal Perception

When an individual thinks about the word “time”, there are almost infinite amounts of ways to perceive and interpret that one simple word and people since the beginning of age have been searching and attempting to label time as a certain entity, but various debate has arisen from the different points of view presented.   In the following text, I will thoroughly explain my perception of time and how it has been a factor in various instances throughout my life

There are many thoughts that rush through my head when I come across the word time.  The overwhelming connotation when anyone hears that word is to think about a clock, a watch, or numerically as in a certain time of day, typically.  This is the modern way of measuring time in a 24 hour day and most people don’t think of time as any more complex than that.  However, I think there is a lot more that time encompasses than just “a quarter past one”.  The origins of the beginning of time, I believe, date back to when God first created the universe and everything in it, including the notion of time.  It was not measured by a 24 hour day obviously but it existed and the rising and setting of the sun continuously was an indicator of the incessant cycle of time.   The same time that began so long ago is the exact same time we come into contact with every second of everyday.  I believe that time is on a continuous spectrum and consists of a past, present, and future.  It began at one precise instant and will continue to exist in the same way it has for the rest of eternity encompassing the present and future as people come into the word and leave it to an afterlife.  It is never staying still and what was the present time a second ago is now the past and the future occurs in the minute that’s about to happen but hasn’t transpired quite yet.  Time is never discrete or standing still.  Nevertheless, there are instances in which time seems to stand still and the seconds and minutes seem to slow down when oneself is doing something boring for example.  Conversely, there are instances when I have been participating in a fun activity with my friends and time seemed to race by and I couldn’t fathom that time had passed by so incredibly quickly.  In reality, the same amount of time could have passed in both situations but the subconscious elucidation the brain makes gives us the sense of time either slowing down or speeding up.  Conversely, not every period of time has to speed up or slowdown in the mind but can apply to individual situation.  Memory is also another major component when perceiving time if not one of the most influential factors out there.  Every single perception we have of past time is due to our brain’s interpretation of these past occurrences through our memory.  Instances in the past time can only be labeled as recently occurred or in the distant past through the use of an individual’s memory.  Moreover, some people may perceive time in the past differently than another.  When dealing with time in the future, it is clear that time isn’t going to stop and that future time is eminent but can we perceive this time before it becomes the present?  On the night of Christmas Eve, for me, time seems to stand still because I am anticipating the future event of Christmas morning that I know is soon to come but regardless is still in the future.  In spite of this however, my past memory of the excitement of Christmas day from past experiences was able to help me make this connection with a future event that hadn’t even taken place.  The speeding up and slowing down of time varies by individual perception and memory plays a huge role in this phenomena.

With my belief in time being continuous, I believe certain events in our life break up this continuous time into interpretable increments.  For example, age can be a good, broad indicator of time.  I am 18 years of age and that means that I have experienced 18 years of time, yet time didn’t start when I was born, it had been continuing from its origins.  The small event of my life would represent an increment to break down the immense theme of time in a way to relate it to my life.  We can break down those 18 years even further as in the four years I was in high school.  Those four years comprise an amount of time and an event by which time can be measured across its unremitting range.  In looking at time in this manor, it allows me to break down my life in a way that’s not numeric but is more representative of experiences and is some way of measuring and perceiving them.  One can also examine the essence of time as sometimes existing and sometimes not.  For an individual sleeping and is not consciously awake, does the time not pass by until they are awake or does it continue on endlessly?  I personally believe that time as whole never stops for anything, it tangibly cannot for any reason, but for the individual sleeping, their time as an individual living I feel stops until they are consciously active but the concept of universal time passes them by regardless of the circumstances.  During deep sleep, dreaming occurs in which the mind projects thoughts into images that we feel we are living and we feel we are experiencing time in a normal manor but we are still motionless and unconscious in reality.  Once awake, time dictates peoples almost every move in terms of having to be somewhere at a certain time and basically is overwhelming to society; yet, when looking past this fact, time is a very complex and daunting object that has been created in a moment and will be continuing on encircling my life forevermore.