ABSTRACT
The holistic experience of flow was first proposed by Csikszentmihalyi in 1975. Flow can be described as a mental state of operation in which a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. Flow is a highly gratifying mental state which is characterized by the merging of action and awareness, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task, sense of control, the loss of self-consciousness, time transformation, and autotelic experience. In addition, and most importantly, flow is experienced when there is a balance between a particular challenge and the skills required to accomplish it. However, if this balance is not met and the situation is not challenging enough, the individual is likely to experience boredom. Thus, flow is somehow the opposite of boredom. In the words of Csikszentmihalyi, flow is “beyond boredom.” In this context, the question arises as to what point the state of boredom changes to the state of flow and how an initially satisfying activity can be perceived as boring. In addition to providing an overview of flow theory, we will discuss these issues in this chapter. We will also look at the consequences of boredom and flow and examine strategies for avoiding boredom and facilitating flow.
