Game Studies Study Buddies 23 – Csikszentmihalyi – Flow
May 29, 2020
A lively dive into Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, its defining features, and how it became a self-help canon. They probe the book’s methods, examples, and claims of universality. The conversation examines political and ethical consequences, who gets excluded from flow, and how the idea migrated into game studies. Critical questions about hierarchy, survivorship, and moral blind spots keep the discussion sharp.
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Flow Defined As Total Involvement
- Flow is a subjective state of deep involvement where attention is fully focused and external concerns recede.
- Csikszentmihalyi defines it as people being so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.
Any Activity Can Become Flow
- Csikszentmihalyi treats nearly any activity as a potential site of flow, from chess to being homeless.
- This universality claim collapses diverse activities into one experience type.
Flow As A Self-Help Project
- The 1990 Flow book functions like self-help: shape consciousness to make any situation rewarding.
- Csikszentmihalyi frames consciousness as a clearinghouse you can train to turn tasks into meaningful experiences.
