This post is not about whether time is speeding up or not. I believe it is and lots and lots of other people would agree. This post is about why it might be happening.
Let's take video games. Video games run at certain framerate. If the game runs at, say, 60 fps, then each second contains 60 separate frames. Now, let's say that character makes a move that takes a certain amount of time. For example, jump. Let's say that jumping in this game takes a bit more than a second. So, at 60 fps a jump would take about 80 frames. At, say, 100 fps the same jump would take about 140 frames or so.
Higher framerates mean that every action, every event uses up more individual moments (frames) than lower ones. Or, in other words, each individual frame is less eventful than on lower framerates. Keep in mind, that objective time stays the same. That jump still takes a bit more than a second regardless of framerate. Even if framerate is ridiculously low, like 5 frames per second, it still takes the same amount of objective time. It's just that each of those 5 frames will contain more events, more advancements than on higher framerate.
I guess, by now you can see where I'm going with this. Our time is speeding up because the actual framerate of our reality (simulation?) is lower than it used to be. The framerate of our simulation is slowing down. Or you could also say that the server our reality is running on is starting to lag and that is the reason why our perceptive time is speeding up. Coincidentally this indirectly proves that we are indeed living in a simulation.
Crazy shit, I know... It's just an idea I had yesterday and decided to write it up. It explains and ties together several phenomena quite neatly and nicely. What do you think?
That's a part of it, but there are a couple of far bigger parts.
First is how the brain processes "new" experiences. When something is new, the brain writes way more frames per second (equivalent), and processes the information more deeply, which makes time feel very slow. When it is something you have done before, and your brain knows what to expect, it does not pay as close of attention and does not process the experience as deeply.
This is why on a new trip, the way home seems so much faster than the way there.
Second is when you are busy or distracted, time flies by without you paying attention. When you are bored or have nothing to do, the brain perceives time as much slower.
When you are young, you have very few responsibilities and all kinds of free time. Things seem slow. When you are an adult, you work more, have chores, have other responsibilities. Much busier, time moves much faster. Then have kids, and and it's like fucking warp drive, because every second is filled with responsibilities, so much so that you have no time to even pay attention.
And add to all of this, the modern world is more responsibility and more distraction than any time in our history. Before the industrial revolution, doing 40-50 hours per week of work for someone else was not a thing, nor were all of the distractions of big city life. We had so much more free time. It has been constant acceleration since then.