Redefining Web Users' Optimal Flow Experiences in Online Environments: An Empirical Analysis

Optimal Flow Experience

Flow is defined as the congruence of high skills and high challenges of the users above a critical threshold level (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988), and the rationality behind the concept of “multi-activity” applies to the dynamic perceptions of challenges perceived in a given situation and the skills a person brings to it. Web as a multi-activity medium of communication was established by Chen et al. (1998). In addition to the concept of “multi-activity” for Flow concept, there is a need to address the problem of conflict between generic and context specific Web Flow. All the researches in the area of Web Flow demonstrates Flow as a concept occurring during network navigation where the person is engrossed in the process of navigating the Web or the mediated perception of the environment called “telepresence” (Steuer, 1992) rather than being present in his / her physical world of tensions, anxieties and frustrations. Hence, network navigation becomes an intrinsically enjoyable and self-reinforcing source of mental relaxation accompanied by the loss of self-consciousness and characterized by a seamless sequence of responses facilitated by machine interactivity (Hoffman & Novak, 1996). Thus, previous research has defined Flow as a generic concept rather than a context specific one. There is no clarity whether e-mail, Internet chat sessions, or Web conferencing are the Flow activities or whether using Web for a specific purpose of searching information for business or educational purposes are the activities that result in Flow. This problem or dispute area of the conflict between generic and context specific Flow is addressed in this empirical study and the Flow activities are categorized as high-Flow and low-Flow activities resulting in a context specific nature of Flow rather than a generic one as described in the previous research. Next we define the Flow states Perfect Flow, Imperfect-Intensive Flow, and Imperfect Flow and discuss the comprehensive process model of network navigation.