Time is a strange phenomenon. It speeds up when we want it to slow down and drags when we wish it would go by faster. Sometimes it feels like we blink and a decade has gone by. Cue “the days are long, but the years are short,” “time flies when you’re having fun,” and all the other time cliches that feel 100% true.
Of course, those truisms are all about our perception of time, not time itself. Time ticks by in a never-changing rhythm of seconds, minutes, hours, days and years, perfectly metered and measured. But it sure doesn’t feel that way, which is why a simple math equation an average third grader can do has grown adults pulling out their calculators to make sure it’s correct.
The equation in question comes from meme that reads “1981 and 2024 are as far apart as 1981 and 1938.”
Yep, it’s correct. The math checks out, no matter how many times you plug the numbers into the calculator. So why does it feel so wrong?
Again, time is a tricky thing. Those of us who were alive in 1981 remember how far back 1938 seemed to us at that time, and there’s simply no way that distance is what 1981 is to us now. It seems impossible.
Part of the problem is that, at least for the middle-agers among us, the 80s still feels like they happened 20 years ago, not 43. That’s simply how time perception works as we age.
But that’s not all of it. As some people have pointed out, there were certainly major changes in both time periods, but the hugely significant cultural changes from 1938 to 1981 were more visible in many ways than most changes we’ve seen since then. Yes, technology exploded near the turn of the millennium, but once the internet and laptops and smartphones hit the scene, tech advancements have mostly been a matter of degree—better, smaller, lighter, faster, more efficient, more intuitive—in fairly steady increments and not so much dramatic jumps.
From 1938 to 1981, we saw huge leaps, from tiny black-and-white television to full-color cable television, from the first transatlantic passenger flight to sending humans to the moon on space shuttles, from switchboards and party lines to cell phone technology, from human computers to PCs.
We also saw clothing styles change drastically from one decade to the next during that time period in a way that we haven’t really seen in the past 40 years. Same with architecture and home designs. The mid-20th century saw the birth of rock n’ roll, the Civil Rights Movement and the shift to women into the workforce. Again, huge leaps.
Wars also defined generations more in the mid-20th century than in the decades since, from WWII to the Vietnam War to the Cold War. It’s not that we haven’t had wars since 1981, but the direct impact of those wars on American life has not been as notable as those previous wars were.
Then again, it’s possible that much of the difference in feel is simply our perception of life now vs. then. Do the years since 1981 seem shorter simply because we’ve lived them, whereas most of us weren’t alive for a good chunk of the 1938 to 1981 time period and only learned it as “history”?
Hard to say, but one thing that’s clear is that people do not like the way this math feels, as evidenced by the comments people left on the post.
“Fitz is cancelled. Feeling triggered here. Lol”
“I did the math too many times because I don’t want to believe this.”
“As someone born in 1981 I really dislike this.”
“Shut your mouth. Those are fighting words! “
“I honestly did nothing to you! Like why?”
“They’re not far apart. You’re far apart.”
It certainly will be interesting to see how the next 43 years feel for the people who live through it vs. 1981 until now.