As we get older, it seems almost inevitable for us to lose track of how quickly the years pass.
Maybe it’s because we find ourselves changing less with each passing year than we did when we were children, but it seems that time keeps moving faster the longer we go through life.
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But while it’s freaky to realize that Zombieland came out a literal decade ago, it’s even easier to not notice all the subtler changes the ravages of time have made in our world over the years.
After all, although we’re about to see how much of a powerful force time can be, it’s also proven itself to be a quiet one.
Give it enough time and the magic eight ball stops seeming so magical.
In this case, that’s because it lost a lot of its fluid over the years, so now we can actually see its answers as they shift around.
It kind of kills the effect, doesn’t it?
We know how much stronger our bonds with our close friends can get over time, but that also holds true in the natural world.
For instance, these trees started off growing as individual plants, but they ended up finding their branches connecting and now they’re pretty much inseparable.
This exposure shot captures how the moon changes position over 28 days.
We know that the moon moves around a lot and we’re used to seeing it in different phases.
Still, there’s a difference between knowing that in the abstract and seeing how far it actually shifts.
If you’re wondering how some silly string demonstrates the haunting passage of time, I should tell you that’s not what you’re looking at.
Instead, this is a real spider web. It’s just that it’s spent enough time in a paint booth to completely transform in color and thickness.
There’s something comforting about seeing how well-worn your barber’s floor is.
One can tell you about the experience they’ve had in the job all day, but they don’t have to say anything when it’s this easy to see how many times they’ve circled their customers like this.
These Indian bridges are about 500 years old, but unlike most structures that old, they’ve only become stronger over time.
That’s because they’re weaved together from living plant roots as a means of ensuring they survive each monsoon season.
And as the plants that make them grow, that survival becomes easier with each passing year.
As comforting as it is to see Robert Irwin follow in his father’s footsteps, that’s not the only punch to the gut that time has for us here.
As Irwin himself said, the crocodile was the same one that Steve once fed 15 years prior.
Unfortunately, time’s power isn’t shown just by what we can see, but by who is no longer around to see it.
Here we see Welsh settler Lewis Jones with members of the Tehuelche nation of Patagonia.
Now, not only is this group all but extinct, but the language they once spoke is in danger of being forgotten forever.
If the paint wasn’t enough evidence that many people have visited this rock, we can almost see the footprints they left behind.
By that, I mean that it’s clear that the way parts of this rock have eroded over time are consistent with the ways visitors have stepped all over it.
When you realize where this floor is, it’s almost surprising that it hasn’t seen even more wear and tear.
That’s because the line to get into Paris’ famous Eiffel Tower passes right through this room.
The fact that only parts of the floor have been worn smooth shows that people seem to have favored certain spots while they wait.
It’s not unusual to see trees overtake small structures built near them, but it’s still fascinating to think about.
After all, there will come a time when this hatching pattern on the bark is the only evidence that there was ever a fence here to begin with.
When it’s too inconvenient to clean up the mess you made, you might find your handiwork becoming a part of history.
Someone broke their sticky hand toy off on this bank’s ceiling and it’s stayed up there ever since.
And if you didn’t know that they become all dull and brown like an old leaf after a while, you do now.
Sometimes, it doesn’t even take such a long period of time to make a serious change.
This pen, for example, was only left in this car for a couple of weeks before it got this bent out of shape.
That’s just the Australian heat for you.
The longer something hangs around, the more the local culture finds itself getting used to it.
With all the moss and sea life that have taken refuge on this strange little platform, it becomes difficult to recognize
This bar counter-top has been used for about a century and it shows.
Enough bottles have found their way in these exact spots that they’ve actually worn a groove into the counter.
Now, it just seems like the logical place to put these sauces and seasonings.
Although this tortoise is no longer with us, it saw more than any of us could even imagine before it passed on.
That’s because at the time of its death in 2006, it was 256 years old. Born in 1750, Adwaita was around to see the ends of three different centuries.
A few years ago, these tiger plushes would have been basically identical.
Of course, the more that pets or children love something, the rougher they tend to be with it.
I like how it kind of looks like the well-loved tiger has actually aged like it’s a real one.
Although I couldn’t really tell you what a pristine balcony knob looks like, this is not it.
Even if that bolted piece is supposed to stick out like that, it’s easy to see how the wood was worn away over time.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the ravages of time that have damaged these gravestones.
A gardener might be able to tell just by looking at them, but years of weedwhacking have also taken their toll on these once-sturdy stones.
It must’ve been too gradual to notice.
Each table in this biology class has a wood panel for reasons that nobody is clear on.
So when there doesn’t seem to be a specific reason for something, the natural response among bored students is to write and doodle on it.
After enough semesters pass, this is what it ends up looking like.
Sometimes, wear and tear has a funny way of showing us how we behave.
For instance, there’s clearly a spot you’re supposed to push to open this door, but it looks like most of this pub’s patrons are taller than they expected.
I don’t know how hot it has to get for tar to melt off a pole, but it apparently gets that hot around here often.
On the plus side, you now have some context for what that sickly, dark puddle gathering around it is supposed to be. Hopefully, that’s comforting.
It’s kind of handy to see what caused all the dents in this Milan street.
Considering how narrow European streets can be sometimes, I suppose it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn how many people here favor motorcycles.
Still, that’s a lot of kickstands.
Once upon a time, these pairs of swim trunks looked the same.
The blue ones are a spare pair that swim instructors keep in the office, while the ones on the right have turned brown thanks to months of chlorine exposure.
These plastic covers in wallets may seem convenient, but they have an unfortunate side effect after a while.
After enough time, you can almost guarantee that the ink will bleed off into the cover itself.
That’s how the first ID I used to get in bars became unusable.
If nothing else, I suppose this wear and tear shows what a careful driver this person is.
If the brake pedal is more worn down than the gas, it seems like a pretty good sign that we don’t have a speed demon on our hands.
Those streaks in the wood make for a pretty cool pattern, but they didn’t happen on purpose.
Instead, those plants growing next to the fence were just buffeted by the wind regularly enough to make these marks.
They’re almost like nature’s windshield wipers.
A knife can only be sharpened so many times before it starts to look like this.
There eventually comes a time when it’s best to just give up and throw it away, but it seems a cook still wants to get a few uses out of this one.
After a few weeks in the California sun, this snack became almost impossible to recognize.
The uploader claims it was a Cheeto, but the comments seem more sure that we’re looking at a pretzel.
Either way, eating it is probably a bad idea.
If you’re wondering what these carvings are trying to say, it may help to know they didn’t always look like that.
As this tree in Aspen, Colorado grew, so too did the initials that young lovers carved into it.
It’s often not too hard to guess what caused the wear and tear in a structure, but your first glance may fool you in this case.
What seems like a long crack in this wall is actually a loose cable and as it’s swung free over time, it’s caused some erosion in the wall behind it.
This one might be intentional, but it’s kind of deep either way.
This bumper sticker is saying that facts matter, but that they can also fade away over times.
After all, a statement doesn’t have to be true to become something that “everybody knows.”
This structure has had its innards exposed thanks to a bunch of people sitting on it.
At least, that’s what I hope happened since someone else seems pretty confident this was caused by people peeing on it.
Please let them be wrong.
I would’ve liked to see what this stone work looked like before everybody walked all over it.
The results here may be a lot smoother to walk on, but it almost makes it seems like a lot of the artist’s work was for nothing.
Although this tree has been through a lot over time, that largely has to do with where it is.
In case you missed the golf cart in the background, this tree stands at a golf course.
If it’s any consolation, the golfers were probably upset that their balls went this way too.
Sometimes, the smallest of actions can eventually lead to some noticeable effects.
For instance, all this vehicle’s driver had to do was rest their elbow on this spot to crack the leather.
It’s hard to tell whether the sun or human contact is more likely to create the subtle effects we’ve seen.
This candle, for instance, is starting to bend over thanks to sunlight gradually melting the wax.
You’ll likely notice that the rust has formed in a particular pattern on this pole.
You might expect that it’s from that chain, but the more specific answer is that this was the result of years of tether ball games.
The idea of playing tether ball with a chain is pretty hardcore, but that’s apparently what was going on here.
It’s hard to imagine how many people had to be slightly annoyed to make this mark.
The reason I say that is because it was believed to be caused by years of people scratching their wedding rings against this door.
Sometimes, it’s not at all hard to figure out what’s causing the wear and tear in the surrounding environment.
Since the marks on this tree are at the same level as this chair swing, the culprit is pretty obvious.
While nothing can truly escape the ravages of time, some areas have more of an effect than others.
For example, this fan would probably not have drooped like this even after years of use if it were in Canada.
Since it’s in a much hotter environment, however, we see how the heat and humidity have warped it.
The longer you leave a photo in direct sunlight, the less likely it is to last.
So if you’ve ever wondered why people keep their more precious memories in photo albums, this should make the effects of sun bleaching much clearer than the actual photo.
Since we’re looking at this from a pretty close up view, it may be hard to tell that it’s a door handle.
But no matter what metal object we’re talking about, we can usually tell where people have been touching it by this kind of accidental polishing.
Of course, we’re not the only ones to have an effect on the area around us.
This grime buildup, for instance, was caused by a small dog opening the door with its nose repeatedly over a long period of time.
If your grandparents haven’t done any renovations lately, this is probably what their bathroom sink looks like.
There’s always one spot that makes more contact with the rushing water than the rest of it, but it can take years to make itself as clearly visible as this.
Even experienced students of karate can have a difficult time noticing an interesting phenomenon.
Namely, that most Gis apparently shrink after a while no matter how carefully you wash them.
So for anyone thinking it simply got smaller because you built their muscles, I’m sorry to disappoint you.
It seems that copper-colored crayons have just enough bronze in them to act like the genuine article.
In other words, they can apparently turn green if they’re left out long enough to oxidize.
This sad picture shows why it’s important to trim a horse’s hooves.
For some reason, the neglected horse this once belonged to only got that experience for half of its hoof and the difference is about as stark as it gets.
If anyone in this fifth-grade class ever worried about how the forest they planted turned out, it seems they can rest easy.
It’s often difficult to imagine that the little saplings we planted as children could one day grow into a mighty forest like this, but 25 years can make quite the difference.
