"Time in Words" Helper for Ruby on Rails

One clever way to format time using Ruby is by using a Rails method called "time_ago_in_words". This method translates the hard to read default format for a date and time, making it more human friendly. Here is a quick example:

time_ago_in_words(Time.now)  # => less than a minute

Here is how to use it in a controller:

class UsersController
  def index
    helpers.time_ago_in_words(Time.now)
  end
end