Why Quarantine Distorts Our Sense of Time
There is nothing like a pandemic and ensuing quarantine to throw a wrench into our routines and remind us of the many things we used to take for granted. Who ever thought that we would pine for a mask-free trip to the grocery store or a lazy afternoon at the cafe? But perhaps the most jarring change since the emergence of COVID has been the fundamental shift in our experience of time.
Something odd happens to time when the slices of the day—the commute, the office, lunch with the coworkers—bleed into one another, with no change of scene to mark one moment from the next. For many, time begins to distort. It becomes difficult to recall which day of the week it is. Hours seem to snail by, but weeks disappear in the blink of an eye. It is during these experiences—when time drags or dashes—that even the least philosophically minded of us briefly ponder its nature. We wonder what exactly this thing we call “time” is, and why our experience of it seems to be in constant flux.
It turns out that thinkers have been posing these questions for millennia, and they are not exactly a piece of cake to answer. In fact, even the mere conceptualization of time presents us with its own set of challenges.
References
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About the Author
Jeremy Koloski
Jeremy is fascinated by the exploration of the human mind and human behavior. At the core of his thought are the big philosophical questions—why are we here, how did we get here, where are we going, and what is consciousness? He sees the arts and sciences as distinct, yet equally valuable tools with which to pick apart these fundamental, yet often intractable, mysteries. His software engineering background provided him with insight into the computational element of human behavior. To bridge the gap between the cold, packaged world of coding and the messy, shifting landscape of human behavior, he moved to London and completed a Master’s of Science in behavioral economics. Influenced by positive psychology, psychotherapy, nudge theory, and the biases and heuristics model, Jeremy is motivated to translate scientific insights to the public in order to help people help themselves. His master’s thesis attempted to uncover some of the factors leading people to squander their leisure time by participating in activities that they find meaningless and unproductive rather than restorative and future-oriented. His overarching goal is to shed light on the human condition, and in doing so, relieve pointless human suffering while maximizing human flourishing. In his free time, Jeremy composes music, writes short stories, and dabbles in wildlife photography.
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