Lesser Flow?

If you've been following my many references to Csikszentmihalyi (and who hasn't?), you know that the understanding of "Flow" - see this, for example - is a big part of our exploration of the psychology of fun.

There are digressions, however, departures, even.

For example, I happen to believe that watching TV can in fact be a flowful experience, whereas Csikszentmihalyi would clearly pooh-pooh any such claim. "Bearnie," he would say in his lovable Transylvanian accent, "vatching TWee ees seemply to seemple, too loh on the tchallentge scale to produce my much vaunted floh eggsperientz."

I would beg to disagree. "Please, o please let me disagree," I would say. Being my conceptual colleague, he would nod sagaciously and tolerantly, urging me to go on.

"Watching TV can in deed provide a challenge of significant complexity," I might say. "In these days of cable and satellite connectivity, a devoted TV-watcher can develop astounding degrees of programmatic sophistication and remote mastery. If one can remember what is on at any given moment on any of 500 potential alternatives, one can successfully avoid all commercial messages. To reach a point where one can follow let us say three different shows, more or less simultaneously, without spending more than let us conjecture two seconds actually exposed to any advertisements, and similarly without getting so absorbed by one drama that one forgets to see the conclusion of another comedy.

"In fact," I'd probably continue, "a master remoter can probably record his kids' favorite cartoon show, to the point of stopping and starting the recording in such manner as to completely avoid commercial interruption, whilst simultaneously watching the Antiques Road Show without ever missing the actual appraisal, being uproariously entertained by the pugilistic antics of Jackie Chan and still catching the final question on "The Wheel!"

Upon hearing this, I am quite certain that Dr. C. would either: a) gain new respect for TV-watching as a flow-producing experience, and b) encourage me to continue my explorations elsewhere.