Lecture 6 - Flow and TV

Question 1

Definition of flow and description of its components

Answer 1

Ex: the guys surfing during Winter

Flow:
* A sense of effortless action felt in moments that stand out as the best in our lives.
Feels like being carried on a wave… here in the moment, doing exactly what I wanna be doing
During intrinsically rewarding activities

Components:
– Clarity of goals (ex: keeping badminton thing over the net)
– Immediate feedback… know whether did a good job or not (ex: know if it was a good surfing day)
– Challenges and skills are matched (challenge high and high skills, or challenge low and low)
–Absorbed in the task (fully focused, present, forget about yourself)
– Sense of personal control (feel like you have control, you’re capable)
– Altered sense of time (feels like time goes faster or can feel longer…like slow motion)
Figure out what brings you flow, and schedule your life around that

Psychological flow, doesn’t have to be physical like a sport

Example of prof and his daughter at Via Ferrata Parc National Des
Grands Jardins
His daughter felt flow, he didn’t (rock climbing)

Question 1

Daily experience sampling (TV)

Answer 1

Ecological momentary assessment (beep throughout the day)… assess experiences

Tv viewing is activity lowest in flow (in the graph)

An Experience Sampling
Analysis of TV-Watching
* Csikszentmihalyi’s view of TV:
* “Mass leisure and mass culture are
the parasites of the mind – they
absorb psychic energy without any
substantive return.”

TV-watching Professor
* “I find television almost irresistible. When the set is on, I
cannot ignore it. I can’t turn it off. I feel sapped, will-less,
enervated … so I sit there for hours and hours … I
remember when we first got the set I’d watch it for hours
and hours, whenever I could, and I remember the feeling of
tiredness and anxiety that always followed these orgies, a
sense of time terribly wasted. It was like eating cotton
candy. Television promised so much richness, I couldn’t wait
for it, and then it just evaporated into air. I remember
feeling terribly drained after watching television for a long
time.”

Kubey & Csikzentmihali
(1989)
Summary
* TV is Highly relaxing and moderately
pleasant.
But: Highly unchallenging
Highly passive
Requires low concentration

Question 2

The paradox of work and leisure

Answer 2

More flow experiences at work than during leisure time
-at work, structure, goals, feedback, challenge, skill….
-most of us use our leisure to watch tv (or scroll on Instagram in modern times lol)

Average Canadian around 4-5 hours of tv a day (idk if this is accurate to now)

Tv= relaxing
Myth that our lives are so demanding that we need to passively relax at home after

TV vs. reading

Reading= more likely to report flow
Consecutive reports over time… tv becomes a worse and worse experience every time
Reading = opposite to tv over time! More and more flow

Question 3

Koestner’s (prof) defence of tv

Answer 3

1. It’s ok if you do it with others.
   -Meh. In general better when we do it with someone else, but not more than if you were let’s say reorganizing your socks with someone else.
2. Life as a professor is stressful. I
   watch TV when I feel exhausted and it
   helps me relax and recuperate.
   -False. Watching tv doesn’t help us recover from a hard day, and a stressful day doesn’t make it more likely to watch tv (even if not stressful or hard day, want to watch tv). Just a habit, not related to how hard day was. Makes you more stressed after.
3. It’s ok if you watch good shows.
   -False.

Question 4

Why do we watch tv then?

Answer 4

-(This is all according to Csikzentmihali) Natural state of our mind is entropy (chaos)…… thoughts are anxious and depressed. Turning on tv = turning off brain and negative thoughts
-Jump cuts make it addictive to look at.
-Watching tv makes you feel anxious and empty the more you watch it… so turn it off and feel worse. Feel like shit so turn it back on to “turn off brain”. Vicious cycle. Negative punishment (taking away the bad thoughts)

Question 5

Watching TV Makes You Smarter! study by Steven Johnson

Answer 5

• Content of TV shows has changed dramatically in last 10 years.
• One episode of “24” connects the lives of 21 distinct
  characters each with a clearly defined “story arc”
• Multiple threading and complex social networks require
  attention, patience, retention and parsing of narrative threads
• “You have to focus to follow the plot, and in focusing you are
  exercising the parts of your brain that map social networks,
  that fill in missing information, and that connect multiple
  narrative threads.”

Cognitive Junk Food or
Healthy Nourishment?
* Law & Order versus Lost
* Fear Factor vs Survivor
* Single predictable thread or map of a
complex network?
* Mindless action or does the character
try to solve problems and manage
resources?
Additional thought by prof: Watch nourishing shows instead of junk. Ex: the bear instead of Emily in paris

Question 6

Kubey and Cz’s
recommendations:

Answer 6

1. Don’t try to give up TV totally.
2. Watch with other people.
3. Be a discriminating viewer.
   make it goal-oriented
   record
   supplement with study

Don’t think we got to this but:
The Flow method:
– Overall goal + as many subgoals as
possible
– Find ways to measure progress
– Concentrate & make finer distinctions re
challenge
– Develop new skills
– Keep raising the stakes when it becomes
boring