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Exploring Web users' optimal flow experiences

Exploring Web users' optimal flow experiences

Hsiang Chen

I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Rolf T. Wigand and Michael Nilan

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Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA Keywords Internet, User studies, Motivation, Individual behaviour, Human-computer interaction Abstract Characterizations of users' experiences on the Web are beginning to appear. Recently released research suggests that Internet use may reduce psychological well-being, for instance by increasing loneliness and depression. Our current study implies that using the Internet may provoke enjoyable experiences through the flow state, which may in turn positively influence an individual's subjective well-being and improve a person's happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect. By surveying 304 Web users through an open-ended questionnaire, this study captures a picture of Web users' flow experiences regarding their optimal situations on the Web. Results suggest that using the World Wide Web is an activity that facilitates flow, which generates an optimal, extremely enjoyable experience with total involvement and concentration. Symptoms and dimensions of flow states on the Web are reported directly from subjects' responses, such as merging of action and awareness, a loss of self-consciousness, the sense of time distortion, enjoyment, and telepresence.

Introduction Flow is defined as an optimal, extremely enjoyable experience when an individual engages in an activity with total involvement, concentration and enjoyment, and experiences an intrinsic interest and the sense of time distortion during his/her engagement. When in the flow state, people become absorbed in their activity, and the focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). The concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over. Irrelevant perceptions and thoughts are screened out and worries about problems disappear (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). In short, the term flow was given to describe the best feelings and the most enjoyable experience possible in human lives as ``the bottom line of existence'' (Csikszentmihalyi, 1982, p. 13). Recently released research by Kraut et al. (1998) suggests that increased use of the Internet may be associated with the increases in depression and loneliness, and decreases in social involvement and psychological well-being. Contrary to their arguments, a few researchers (Hoffman and Novak, 1996a, 1996b; Chen et al., 1998, 1999) have suggested that using the World Wide Web is an activity that can facilitate the occurrence of flow. If using the Web may potentially cause entry to the flow state, an enjoyable experience, Web users should eventually improve their subjective well-being through accumulated ephemeral moments. Flow seems to be the engine of evolution propelling human beings to a higher level of complexity and to an improved psychological well-being. When

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an activity stimulates an individual's enjoyment and peak experience, this engagement frequently promotes psychological growth (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1984, p. 269) and increased personal skills. In order to duplicate the experience of exhilaration, an individual must slightly increase the challenge level and also develop his/her skill level to meet the increased challenges. This continual process guides human beings into a world of slight complexity and slight uncertainty, which in turn propels human beings to evolve. Potentially, flow helps human beings to build a better society, and creates a better quality of life for individuals. For example, Massimini and Carli (1988), after investigating the effect of flow on the quality of adolescent life, found that those students who spent more of their time in flow were more cheerful, friendly, sociable and happy. A study on school crime and juvenile delinquency (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1984) suggests that much crime and vandalism was the result of boredom. Clarke and Haworth (1994) found that students who experienced flow scored significantly higher on measures of psychological well-being than those who did not experience flow. Wells (1988) found that the self-esteem of women was significantly higher both whenever challenges and skills were higher than average and whenever they were in flow. Just like any phenomenon, flow is a neutral experience and can result in positive and negative effects in its application. Since the flow experience itself by definition is a positive and optimal experience, the consequence of its application in the real world does not necessarily generate positive effects. Certainly, flow can help an individual achieve peak performance, promote psychological growth, and increase personal skills. However, in some ways, the flow experience is similar to addiction, which turns an experience of intensive involvement and immersion into a destructive force in personal life. Further, since flow experience is enjoyable, people like to duplicate their experience as much as possible. Under certain situations, people may abuse their time and indulge themselves. In addition, if the process of experiencing flow is not employed to create positive activity that is beneficial to people or to the whole society, it could generate harmful and negative results. In short, if applied in appropriate ways, experiencing flow is beneficial both to human beings as a whole and to individuals as members of a society, because the consequences of flow propel the society to evolve while also improving individuals' quality of life. Through accumulated ephemeral moments, individuals make their lives happier (Massimini and Carli, 1988), become more creative (Larson, 1988, p. 150), improve their talent (Nakamura, 1988), increase their productivity, create higher self-esteem (Wells, 1988), provide a higher life satisfaction (Han, 1988, p. 138), and reduce their stress. With respect to the social system as a whole, while individuals contribute their personal growths, knowledge, beliefs, and more complex skill levels to cultural systems, they are shaping the mechanism of the social system through their very existence and their growth. In other words, flow makes human beings' evolution possible.

Using the Web, just like rock climbing or chess playing, is an outstanding Exploring Web example of a potential flow activity, providing those sequences of action that users' optimal make it easy for people to achieve optimal experience. Today, Web users flow experiences frequently report some important flow symptoms, such as ``absorbed interest'', ``a feeling of discovery'', ``immersed pleasure'' and ``time going very fast''. The interactivity, involvement, and its distinction from everyday activities may 265 provide Web users a route to experience flow. To make flow happen, Csikszentmihalyi (1990, p. 72) describes the conditions of flow activities as follows: They have rules that require the learning of skills, they set up goals, they provide feedback, [and] they make control possible. They facilitate concentration and involvement by making the activity as distinct as possible from the so-called ``paramount reality'' of everyday existence . . . Because of the way they are constructed, they help participants and spectators achieve an ordered state of mind that is highly enjoyable.

In our daily life, situations where challenges and skills are matched are rare because most activities in which we are engaged usually do not require goals, feedback, concentration, involvement, or the learning of skills. To some extent these elements can be found in the World Wide Web environment because the interactivity between the virtual environment behind the computer screen (e.g. cyberspace) and human beings provides Web users with a route to experience flow. Hoffman and Novak (1996b) argue that the Web is a virtual hypermedia environment incorporating interactivity with both people and computers. They point out that, within this virtual environment, Web users' skills and challenges posed by the environment introduce a competency issue which does not exist so fundamentally in the physical world. They assert that when a Web user perceives a balance between his/her skills and the challenges from the virtual environment, flow occurs. To further verify Hoffman and Novak's (1996b) assertion and to increase our understanding of Web users' flow experience, we think it is necessary to conduct a quantitative study of Web users' flow experience and build a coherent description of these experiences. Our current study takes a fundamental, descriptive approach to study Web users' flow experiences. We believe that a descriptive approach at this stage allows us to capture the language that users themselves employ to talk about their flow experiences in the Web environment and also improve our understanding of the nature of Web users' flow experiences by establishing both quantitative and qualitative groundwork making possible further studies. Method During the last decade, more and more researchers have brought flow theory to different fields, but only a few (Novak et al., 1998; Chen et al., 1998) have applied it to the World Wide Web environment. In an attempt to explore Web users' flow experiences, the results of our literature review generated three major concerns in conducting scientific studies on the issue of flow experience on the Web.

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First, our knowledge about how people in their Web engagement enter the flow state is limited because very few studies have explored this topic. Second, the accelerating pace of the Web's evolution requires continuous study over time to effectively observe the changes in Web users' internal and external experiences. Third, methodological challenges of studying personal experiences make studying flow on the Web difficult. In order to collect highquality data, flow must be operationalized as a situated experience, dynamically bound in time and space. Otherwise, serious validity problems and systematic errors may ensue. Based on the existing knowledge gap regarding flow theory and various limitations of previous research designs, this research intends to take another step to increase our understanding of Web users' flow experiences. Given that flow experiences on the Web are situated in time and space, we believe that any exploratory study into the flow phenomenon in the Web environment should be conducted with caution. Therefore, this paper attempts to answer the following questions: Does flow occur on the Web? What kinds of activities on the Web make the experience of flow possible? What kinds of flow symptoms occur on the Web? Samples The descriptive methodology employed in this study involved the development of an open-ended survey instrument that allowed a wide sample of Web users to describe their flow experiences in their own terms. Two convenience samples of Web users were selected from 30 Internet discussion groups and on-line discussion mailing lists. A total of 1,200 e-mail addresses were collected from the pool of newsgroups. We also sent e-mails calling for participation to 20 Internet or Web related on-line discussion mailing lists. Procedures All communication with respondents was in digital format through the Internet. The survey to the first sample was implemented either by e-mail or by a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) Web fill-out form. An explanatory e-mail note was sent to the selected respondents, along with the questionnaire. Respondents could use the ``reply'' function of their e-mail application to return the questionnaire once finished, or simply visit the researchers' Web site, which was listed in the e-mail, to fill out the CGI form and submit their results. All data were sent to the researchers either by e-mail or by CGI form from the Web page. To the second sample, only the Web CGI fill-out form was available. Questionnaire The questionnaire consisted of several groups of self-administered questions tapping users' situated flow experience on the Web. Respondents were first asked whether they have ever had an experience in the Web environment as described in the three quotations devised by Csikszentmihalyi (1975). These descriptions were used because they provide a general description of the

phenomenon in non-technical language. Here are the three descriptions, taken from a rock climber, a composer, and a dancer, respectively: My mind isn't wandering. I am not thinking of something else. I am totally involved in what I am doing. My body feels good. I don't seem to hear anything. The world seems to be cut off from me. I am less aware of myself and my problems. My concentration is like breathing. I never think of it. I am really quite oblivious to my surroundings after I really get going. I think that the phone could ring, and the doorbell could ring, or the house burn down or something like that. When I start, I really do shut out the whole world. Once I stop, I can let it back in again. I am so involved in what I am doing. I don't see myself as separate from what I am doing.

If respondents replied ``yes'' to any of these three quotations, indicating that they had had such experiences on the Web, they were asked to describe the contexts and situations they were involved in the last time these experiences occurred in their Web activities. In order not to elicit generalized data but specific information situated and bound in a specific time and space (Dervin and Nilan, 1986), this study asked respondents to describe their ``last experience''. The questionnaire was designed and structured explicitly to elicit Web users' flow experiences and those Web activities they were engaged in when the flow state occurred. The total number of replies received was 327 (111 from the sample of newsgroups and 216 from mailing lists). After a careful review, 304 valid respondents were retained by eliminating 23 due to duplicate submission or lack of data supplied. We understand that using questionnaires may not yield a good quality of data for eliciting phenomenological perceptions because subjects are not used to putting those perceptions into words (Massimini et al., 1988, p. 71). Further, data collected in this study were Web users' retrospective recollections of their flow experiences. Nevertheless, we believe that questionnaires can still be used to explore Web users' flow experiences in building preliminary data and drawing a descriptive picture of their flow states. Flow experience on the Web In general, respondents in this study may not adequately represent the whole range of Web users. In comparison with the Graphic, Visualization, and Usability (GVU) Center's WWW users survey in 1998, respondents in this study appeared to have a higher educational background, longer Internet use experience, and more Internet use in a week. Besides, since this survey was selfadministered, it is likely that only those potential respondents who have had flow experiences were willing to participate in the study and report their experience. Further, since participating in the study required the ability to narrate personal experience, it is then possible that only those persons who were willing to expose their personal experience actually participated in the study. We understand that the sample in this study does not represent the wide range of general Web users on the Internet but we feel that these respondents can still provide us valuable information regarding their flow experience in the

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Web environment. Since the main purpose of this study is to describe the nature of the experience of flow on the Web, and the range of activities associated with flow, this sample is appropriate. To answer our research questions, ``Does flow occur on the Web'' and ``What kinds of activities on the Web make flow experience possible'', we drew quotations directly from Web users' responses. We believe that responses from Web users themselves could descriptively illustrate the range of perceptions and answer our research questions. Flow activities The routes to experience flow on the Web. According to respondents, the Web environment consists of several activities and multiple routes leading to the flow state. The most frequently reported activity which brought them into the flow state was information searching on the Web. Usually, the results of this activity were used to solve a problem: I was very involved in several projects and used the net resources to look up items to supplement/back-up/provide information on those projects. Doing research into emotional intelligence theory ± following links and leads to more information. Trying to find some scientific references for my research. Anytime I get involved in a new research project on the Web, I get so excited and into it, I can have someone talking to me right next to my desk . . . and I won't even hear them talking.

In some other situations where Web users entered the flow state, the Web activity was just a pure navigation, or surfing. Usually, this was achieved by following hyperlinks on Web pages: Going from site to site, following links that were related. Doing some Web searches for information on a hobby of mine. I was going to a Web site which had a new song by my favorite punk band. I was surprised and enmeshed in it. Looking for information on a specific book, and got off on some links that were interesting and related [sort of] to what I started out looking for.

The second most frequently reported flow activity was ``reading'' and ``writing'' on the Web. The activity of reading usually referred to reading incoming email, posted news in newsgroups, or articles on Web pages; the activity of writing referred to composing articles to debate with someone in the newsgroups or replying to incoming e-mail. The activity of reading e-mail and articles is one of the routes to experience flow because ``the text usually contains some new or relatively unfamiliar aspects, providing the challenges to sustain flow, which in turn usually caused growth and perceived benefits from increased knowledge and/or personal development'' (McQuillan and Conde, 1996). On the other hand, the activity of composing e-mail or articles for newsgroups fits into the flow models because, according to Larson (1988,

p. 171), ``when creative thinking is necessary . . . [t]he quality of performance Exploring Web will depend, to a large extent, on how well the thinker is able to arrange his or users' optimal her thought processes so as to make them enjoyable''. flow experiences The third most frequently reported activity was chatting. The evolution of the Web now makes real-time communication possible. Respondents described how their flow experiences occurred: I was simply engaged in a running series of conversations with friends . . . Chatroom outside normal business hours. Involved in a nine-way chat session with some friends I've made on the alt.fan.sailor-moon newsgroup.

Other reported activities included ``coding a program'', ``hacking into a small business'', ``building my own Web page'', ``watching a movie preview'' and ``troubleshooting computer problems''. These diverse activities imply that the Web environment includes different possibilities for bringing Web users into flow states. Therefore, studying Web users' flow experiences should not be limited to a single dimension of interactivity or navigation. Flow symptoms on the Web Csikszentmihalyi (1975) summarized perceptions of flow experiences into eight dimensions: (1) clear goals and immediate feedback; (2) personal skills well suited to given challenges; (3) merger of action and awareness; (4) concentration on the task at hand; (5) a sense of potential control; (6) a loss of self-consciousness; (7) an altered sense of time; and (8) experience which becomes autotelic. Since employing self-administered questionnaires as an instrument is not a perfect tool for collecting subjects' internal experiences and events at conscious level, we found that very few subjects mentioned the dimension of (5) a sense of potential control or (2) perceived challenges. The sense of potential control and perceived challenges are phenomenological dimensions that cannot be easily elicited from subjects' self-reports when they report their flow experiences. Therefore, we explicitly asked subjects to report their previous feeling of ``a sense of control'' and ``perceived challenges''. These two phenomenological and conscious dimensions are under-reported in Web users' flow experience because respondents were not asked to report the dimension of their flow experiences. Another dimension that was missed by most subjects is the (8) autotelic experience. In flow, the activity a person is engaged in becomes autotelic, or

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intrinsically rewarding, because the activity itself, which is fun and enjoyable, already provides enough motivation to do it. Since we asked subjects who have had an experience similar to the three quotations to report their flow experiences on the Web, subjects tended to focus on how they felt during those moments, not on the dimension of their motivation. For the same reason, we decided to explicitly ask subjects to report their last experience of enjoyment on the Web. From subjects' reports in this study, we observed the existence of a unique dimension, telepresence (Steuer, 1992), which is not included in flow theory. The existence of the telepresence dimension in the Web environment was first suggested by Hoffman and Novak (1996a) and we think it is useful to include it in our report. In this report we omit the dimension of clear goals and immediate feedback for two reasons. First, only a few subjects integrated this dimension into their responses. Second, we think that respondents' retrospective recollections of this dimension are not reliable. Merging of action and awareness When in flow, a person's concentration is focused on what she/he is doing and is narrowed down to the activity itself. As a result, an individual's inner experience may reveal the phenomenon of merging action and awareness. High concentration in the flow state makes the mind and action merge. For example, a tennis player, when in flow, focuses his/her attention on the ball and the opponent completely, not on anything else, such as worries about losing or applause from the audiences. During those moments, the content of his/her action becomes identical to his/her awareness. In the Web environment, the merging of action and awareness is realized when a user ``becomes'' the issue he/she is debating, the words he/she is typing, the sentences he/she is reading, or the machine he/she is working on. As a result, people ``just sit here and keep clicking and reading away''. The following are Web users' descriptions of the merging of action and awareness: Connected to the material, like I had several books open at the same time and was moving between them without pause. I feel [am!] totally concentrated on my task. There is nothing but the keyboard, the screen and my thought. If someone talks to me I will answer and I am still on ``stand by'' awareness with my environment, but I wouldn't think of doing or saying anything. When I was unemployed and desperately searching for work, a task that seemed increasingly worthless, I began reading newsgroups and involving myself in discussions and disagreements there. The more involved I became in the *issues* that I was discussing and arguing, the less important my own petty problems became. Just that my whole concentration is focused in what I'm doing ± I become the words I'm typing or reading. It's not that the outside world doesn't exist ± if one of my roommates knocks on my door, I notice them and it's not a shock to return to the outside world. But until that happens I'm totally engrossed. In chat sessions ± I chat often enough that ``talking'' through the keyboard has become second nature.

Relaxed . . . I guess just . . . well . . . nothing. I wasn't feeling anything until I'd sit back and relax my eyes a bit . . . then I'd realize that I had more stuff that I should be doing, but I'd just sit here and keep clicking and reading away. I was in a heated discussion on a chat network for the better part of two hours. I cannot remember what the subject was about, but all I knew was I was totally blind to the world.

Concentration on the task at hand When a person becomes absorbed in the activity, the concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over, irrelevant perceptions and thoughts are screened out, and worries about problems disappear (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, p. 72; 1990, p. 71). In the Web environment, this phenomenon is the most frequent dimension mentioned by subjects. When the involving experience appeared, the physical world was blocked out. Subjects described their involving experience as ``my mind is completely focused on the subject at hand'' or ``totally focused, irritated at interruptions''. This kind of full concentration is similar to the situation in reading books, as many subjects compared this experience to their previous engagement in reading. I focus on what I do. . . and in that presence, everything else disappears. Just like reading a book ± when I read a book I get totally engrossed in it ± the Web is the same in many ways. I get involved in researching a topic and I get totally involved in what I am reading. My husband has walked into the room and kissed me on top of the head and made me jump because I didn't know he was there. Sort of like a laser beam, completely focused on finding the information I desired. Pretty focused on the monitor . . . basically a bomb could drop and I wouldn't notice .... Well, this is similar to when you get involved reading a really good novel. You don't hear when people are talking around you. You are immersed in the story. That's what it is like for me. I was engrossed in absorbing information, an experience very similar to reading a novel that I was particularly into. During surfing, I felt total concentration, however when I got off I felt disoriented.

A loss of self-consciousness After entering the flow state, an individual may temporarily lose awareness of self in those moments of complete involvement. Outside of those flow episodes, people usually keep monitoring how they appear in other peoples' eyes, keep tracking how much progress they have made in accordance with another person's expectations, or defending themselves from attacks by others. When in the flow state, the functions of defending and protecting systems no longer operate in their normal sense because complete concentration takes away all irrelevant thoughts. A person must spend all his/her psychic energy on the limited field of that activity and loses awareness of him/herself as a separate ``observer''. As long as a person is involved in what she/he is doing, he/she may

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become too involved to worry about failure and lose his/her self-consciousness. In the Web environment, this is not an uncommon experience, e.g.: Whether it is reading newsgroups or doing a search for a particular thing I tend to concentrate and ``lose myself''. I become the persona I present in the newsgroup, not my ``real'' self. It's my other identity.

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I am a smoker, I can't smoke in my office, and sometimes I won't even want a cigarette for several hours [when in the flow state]. How do I feel? I tend to shut out my feelings too ± if I'm reading/interacting with good content, I put off my feeling that I need to go to the bathroom, that I am hungry, etc. I feel like there is no ``Me''; I feel there has been a merging of man and machine. I feel agitated and compelled to get the job done to the point of ignoring hunger, thirst or the need to go to the bathroom. I get so disconnected from the world that someone else has to pull me out. Like they were there with me to keep my mind off of the ``real'' world. Oblivious. The physical world and its demands cease to exist. My own mind and intelligence are the only limitations I encounter. I heard the radio, drank beer, and smoked cigarettes. I was aware of my surroundings, but yes I was less aware of my problems. I don't know. I was working not looking at me working . . .

The sense of time distortion During flow episodes, time ceases to matter because external clocks keep running at a consistent pace but a person's internal clock slows down or speeds up. To people in flow, hours seem to transform into minutes while seconds may change into hours. The length of clock time ceases to be consistent with experienced time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, p. 113). In the Web environment, people in flow have a strong feeling that time goes very fast and are surprised at how much time has passed. Even though I have a program that audibly announces the time in a female voice every 15 minutes on my computer, I don't hear it . . . When I leave my computer from the newsgroup I have a slightly dazed, disassociated feeling. While in the newsgroup I have lost all sense of time. What subjectively seems like 20 minutes turns out to have actually been 2‰ hours. Time went by extremely fast. Two hours had passed before I had ever realized it. I was quite shocked that so much time had passed without me being aware of it. Just that feeling of being totally absorbed in what you're doing, looking at the clock and saying ``Dang, how can it be 4 a.m., I just started this project!'' I felt involved and like the time was a half-hour but it was more like three hours. Finding content material for a series of class presentations. I began putting the material together at 10 a.m. and floundered for a few minutes, when I began finding detailed information I kept working of what seemed like an hour ± it was actually 3 p.m. I don't remember specifics, but I have several memories of ``head jerking'' (as in when you fall asleep and your head falls forward and jerks back) that caused me to realize that my perception of what time it should be was several hours behind the time it actually was.

A sense of potential control Exploring Web From a view of social psychology, it is anomie (Durkheim, 1915, 1952) and users' optimal alienation (Marx, 1956; Mitchell, 1983) that make flow difficult in a society. flow experiences Anomie refers to a condition in a society where an individual loses his/her norms of behavior. When a society is full of uncertainty and it is no longer clear what is permitted and what is not, an individual's behavior becomes erratic and 273 meaningless, and consequences of behavior become unpredictable (Mitchell, 1983, p. 178; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 86). On the contrary, alienation refers to a condition in which people are constrained by the social system to act in ways that go against their goals (Mitchell, 1983, p. 86). As the social order becomes too certain, individuals can predict their own behaviors as they perceive that their world is constrained by social forces (Mitchell, 1983, p. 43). According to Csikszentmihalyi (1990, p. 86), in an anomie society where individuals suffer from external uncertainty of the consequences of their behavior, experiencing flow becomes difficult. Similarly, in an alienation society where one can always predict results of behavior, flow, being distinct from everyday experience, is not likely to happen. In the case of anomie, individuals do not know where to invest their psychic energy because everything is uncertain; in the case of alienation, individuals are similarly constrained, but because everything is too certain. In short, the degree of certainty determines the occurrence of flow. Neither extreme uncertainty, which is equivalent to anomie, nor extreme certainty, which is equivalent to alienation, facilitates the occurrence of flow. This is true in the Web environment. If a Web user feels too much certainty in the Web environment, alienation probably occurs and experiencing flow is not possible. We found that many subjects in this study reported that they were ``always in control'' in the Web environment. Since this question when asked was not linked to subjects' flow experiences, we understand that subjects' response did not represent and situate at the moments of their optimal experiences, and therefore, their answers would not precisely reveal the dimension of a sense of potential control when in flow. However, some subjects still provided their insights into this finely delineated dimension and disclosed their senses of potential control through their responses. I was searching for some crucial information, very important to a job I was doing. I really didn't know where to look for it when I started. But, an hour later or so, I hit the information and that gives me a good feeling of power. It's kind of like driving a sports car when I'm twisting and turning through various web sites following info I'm enjoying. ``I can go here, and I can go here, and now I'll go back and catch the second best one on that page, and . . .'' It's nice to feel like the ``book'' I'm reading is one that I'm in charge of binding. When I find everything I am looking for and nothing goes wrong. Being successful in browsing the Web, and subjects I was looking for, successful navigation to the areas that helped me, and more specifically, the knowledge in how to get to those areas.

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It was when I successfully found the information that I was looking for via the search engines. The information I was looking for was exactly where I thought it should be. Using Boolean search terms to precisely locate the material I was looking for.

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Mostly I'm in control during my web navigation. I'm looking for specific items and I know how best to find them. I try to keep the ``sidetracks'' to a minimum.

Telepresence Telepresence is ``the compelling sense of being present in a mediated virtual environment'' (Held and Durlach, 1992; Kim and Biocca, 1997; Steuer, 1992). This virtual environment is considered a ``mediated environment'' with which people interact. In Steuer's (1992) model of mediated communication, telepresence is ``the mediated perception of an environment''. Hoffman and Novak (1996a) interpreted the concept ``telepresence'' in the Web environment as the perception of two environments: the physical environment in which a Web user is present, and the environment defined by the Web. They further hypothesized that the experience of telepresence, which was different from one's immediate physical environment, can enhance the flow experience on the Web. Subjects in our study revealed this virtual environment through their selfreports. In their perception, this telepresence environment helped them escape from their physical world, and further, they felt peaceful, powerful, happy, and excited in this virtual world, which separated them from their existing world. I feel as if I can shut out all around me and totally concentrate on my reading and surfing of the net. I feel the world is now open to me as never before. I am so involved in what I am doing that I block everything else out. When searching for research information, I systematically review any relevant information. My concentration becomes complete and my surroundings fade. I have had similar experiences in a library but the net is better. I feel empowered by all the uncovered. I just totally disconnect from the rest of the world. I feel I got so much information at my fingertips that I better focus on it. Great experience, it also helps me getting away from some of the stuff that worries me. I felt as though I was here but I wasn't in the real world. My mind was in cyberspace. Whenever I read any technical documentation that needs involvement I tend to ``cut off'' the world around me! I felt oblivious to my surroundings. Completely lost in thought at deciphering what I was looking at, reading, and visualizing what the results of such code would be. The Web to me sometimes acts as an escape. The Web to me is sometimes an escape from an otherwise stressful life. It is nice to get lost in it sometimes.

Enjoyment In our daily life, most activities we are engaged in are exotelic, or extrinsically rewarding, because we do them for other intentional purposes, not for their own sake. In flow, the activity a person is engaged in becomes autotelic, or intrinsically rewarding, because doing the activity itself, which is fun and

enjoyable, already provides enough motivation to do it. When carrying out an Exploring Web activity becomes autotelic, usually the original goal of doing it, or extrinsic users' optimal reward, ceases to matter, and is replaced by intrinsic motivation. For example, flow experiences ``the mountaineer does not climb in order to reach the top of the mountain but tries to reach the summit in order to climb'' (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, p. 33). When people experience flow in the Web environment, the original goal of engaging in the Web environment should be replaced by intrinsic rewards, or 275 engagement for its own sake. The goal of engaging in the Web environment is just an excuse to make the enjoyable experience possible. Yes, I enjoy browsing the Web. It's enjoyable for the content of the information I encounter. Sometimes it makes me laugh, or think about interesting issues, or it gives me some info need for a task like buying or fixing or vacationing. But other times the enjoyment is just the flow of info. It's like being a kid in a candy store, only all the candy is free. I get a kick out of corresponding with other people on controversial issues. I also find the Internet extremely beneficial whenever I wish to gather information on any topic of interest to me. I find it fun and sometimes very challenging to track down specific information. After a difficult chase I feel a sense of accomplishment when I finally find what I am after. Generally when I go looking for information about programming languages and so forth, I find myself enjoying discovering the opinions of other programmers who use these languages. I am constantly amazed and delighted at the extent and depth of information that can be gleaned from the World Wide Web. I think that's a very stupid question. If I didn't _enjoy_ it, I wouldn't _do_ it. It's just something I like to do . . . it's hard to explain . . . I love the sense of seeking new information. It is a feeling of being a detective, tracking down pieces of the story, or clues. I wouldn't do it otherwise. It's a learning experience, to keep reading, there's so much information to be read, and I enjoy learning. Again, I _love_ to learn more about topics that interest me, so I derive great pleasure from checking out sites of interest to me: this one, for example, where I have the opportunity to give my opinion: another of my favorite activities! Always enjoy surfing on Web. I do because I'm pleased there. Not only the last time, any time is a good time on line. This morning I was downloading some drivers, trying to fix an annoying printer problem. I spent the entire morning on it, and it was extremely enjoyable. More so than the work I would have been doing and then trying to print, anyway. Again, it feels good to be able to access a lot of information. It has to do both with the feeling of being able to get information and of being connected to knowledge or information. It's also fun to think about where all this information is coming from. I almost always experience enjoyment on the Internet. Whether chatting with my online friends, reading newsgroups, or just learning new information from Web sites that I come across in my searches.

Perceived challenges Researchers who are interested in flow phenomena in the Web environment should first appropriately operationalize the concept of perceived challenges in

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the Web environment because of its central role as an indicator of flow experiences. Flow has been conceptualized as an optimal experience that stems from people's perceptions of challenges and skills in given situations. Csikszentmihalyi (1975, p. 50) referred to the flow state as a situation where the perceived challenges of an activity are matched by the person's perceived skills. Flow can occur when an activity challenges an individual enough to encourage playful, exploratory behaviors without the activity being beyond the individual's reach. At a given moment, individuals are aware of a certain number of opportunities challenging them while they assess how capable they are to cope with the challenges. If the challenges of an activity are beyond the individual's skill level, demanding more than the individual can handle, a state of anxiety ensues. On the contrary, when the challenges are lower than the individual's skill level, boredom, not flow, may be the result. Situations in which challenges and skills are perceived to be equivalent are thought to facilitate the emergence of flow. This suggests that to understand the flow experience in the Web environment, we should first seek the challenges Web users perceive and the skills Web users employ. Unfortunately, the challenge is an extremely complex variable, especially in the Web environment. We feel that there is a need to collect data to interpret this construct, so other researchers can apply our findings to their scale building. We also feel that it is not appropriate to interpret challenges as only challenges in using computers, hardware or software because this not only contradicts the fundamentals of flow theory in the dynamic feature of perceived challenges (Moneta and Csikszentmihalyi, 1996; Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) but also violates evolving rules of pursuing complexion (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1984; Csikszentmihalyi and Massimini, 1985). From subjects' responses, we found out there are 13 different sources which Web users perceived as challenges. Among them, 53 per cent are from activities of searching or locating information on the Web, and only 7 percent are from activities using computer hardware and software. Here is what subjects stated through their self-reports: Surfing and locating information I think any time I go looking for information that is a little off the beaten path, I am presented with a positive challenge. Searching for family friends' names and addresses via the Web. Again, researching a topic for work and enjoying the challenge of finding the information.

Software or hardware problems Trying to get my NT based PC at work to talk JavaScript to my company's intranet. I was looking up solutions to a software conflict and fixed my problem. Have you ever had to deal with a slow modem connection when you REALLY want to get on and find information!?! My challenge consists of trying to configure my computer to minimize its apparent incompatibility with AOL and the Net.

Building search strategies While I can't say exactly when, I use the Web primarily for research and it is quite a challenge to try to define my search to best obtain the results I am seeking. It was definitely challenging to weed out the garbage so that I wouldn't have to wade through it later. Anytime I do a new search it's a challenge. Learning new knowledge. When I learned about new technologies in discussion groups. Just learning more every day about search engines, Web sites, design, etc.

Playing games Playing a game of Hearts. Playing Age of Empires over the Net.

Creating Web pages It's always a positive challenge to design a Web page that has great content and keeps bringing people back time and time again. Just about every time I have to create a new site from scratch.

Engaging in debate Absolutely! I feel challenged in most disagreements/arguments in newsgroups. This generally occurs when I am either on the newsgroup or am reading about C++ and I encounter an opinion that is radically different from my own. In these situations, I feel that I need to reevaluate my stance, and often reply to the statements. I enjoy these challenges, and feel that I learn a lot from my navigation. Engaging in a ``conversation'' via a newsgroup that challenged my ideas or way of thinking.

Offering help Answering e-mail where someone asked for assistance from me. When a question was posed that needed research.

Writing e-mail Writing a letter to USA Today. Replying to mail and Usenet messages - I sometimes feel ``challenged'' to get the wording exactly right.

Re-evaluating personal knowledge Reading something that truly made me think. I was looking for something specific. I enjoy the hunt itself. You find all kinds of things you would never have thought of looking for when hunting for something specific. Usually while viewing a site that is intellectually stimulating. Social commentary, history, and scientific sites might bring this on.

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Conclusions In this paper, from subjects' direct responses, we have successfully explored important flow dimensions, and using the flow model as a lens, we have verified the existence of flow on the Web and described Web users' flow experiences. In the beginning, we argued that the characteristics of interactivity and involvement on the Web should provide Web users a route to experience flow. Therefore, we chose to build an interactive dialogue in our questionnaire to elicit Web users' flow experiences. Those valuable and precise descriptions of flow experiences on the Web not only reveal Web users' internal experiences but also disclose a rich picture of their flow experiences. We hope the efforts we have made at this stage can aid other researchers in their examination of Web users' flow experiences. We feel that our report can assist researchers who share similar interests in at least three ways. First, our descriptive, qualitative approach may provide researchers with a motivation for studying this issue. This complicated but intriguing, as well as challenging but interesting, issue remains a powerful, timely, and fruitful area of inquiry. Second, from Web users' direct descriptions of their internal experiences and their state of mind, we think we have successfully verified the existence of flow experience in the Web environment. In addition, through the examination of almost every flow dimension, we observe no major differences at the conscious level between flow experiences on the Web and flow experiences in other activities, such as chess playing or rock climbing. Therefore, we believe that flow theory can be applied to Web users' behaviors, both internal and external, and that Web activities should provide enjoyable experiences to Web users and improve the quality of their psychological well-being. Since the study of Kraut et al. (1998) reported that Internet use may reduce psychological well-being, our study suggests that the flow experience on the Web may possibly improve or remedy the negative effects of Internet use. Third, we hope our report here, which tapped Web users' inner experiences during their engagement on the Web, can provide enough background and knowledge to other researchers who are interested in building reliable and valid instruments to measure Web users' flow experiences. If the qualitative results of this study can further aid similar research in identifying the elements or factors that motivate Web users to enter that flow state, Web users' Internet use may be improved significantly. Given the relative newness of the Web and that the development of the Internet is evolving, human beings' adaptations to this new technology are still evolving. Only when enough knowledge is accumulated on this issue can scientists start to shape the development of the Internet and so help human beings adapt to online environments, obtain their optimal and positive experiences, and make better decisions about Internet use. Kraut et al. (1998) conclude: The evolution of the Internet and the domestication process is only just starting. Perhaps the principal lesson of our study is that we must expend the effort to understand actual usage experience and evaluate social impacts, and to use this understanding to make better informed design decisions.

We would like to provide a few recommendations in studying Web users' flow Exploring Web experiences. users' optimal First, Web users' flow experiences are multi-dimensional and flow is a flow experiences complicated construct. Any inquiries into this experience should not limit examination to a single or only a few dimensions. Second, an instrument or scale used to measure Web users' flow experiences 279 should at least be able to distinguish people in flow from people not in flow. If an instrument cannot distinguish in-flow from non-flow experience, the instrument should not be used to study flow experience. A few instruments used in previous studies of flow experiences during personal computer use (Ghani and Deshpande, 1994; Ghani et al., 1991; Webster et al., 1993; Trevino and Webster, 1992) were not able to distinguish in-flow from non-flow experience. Third, the flow experience is an ephemeral phenomenon situated in time and space and should not be studied as a generalized experience. Otherwise, subjects provide their general and unspecific impressions of Web use over time. If the flow construct in a study is unable to catch those ephemeral moments or is unable to reflect respondents' inner experiences at that moment, results may not be convincing. Fourth, challenges and skills are the most important universal indicators of flow experience. Since challenges and skills are extremely complex variables, researchers should carefully operationalize these two variables. Without proper operationalizations, it seems that these two variables are unlikely to be understood by subjects. Fifth, since flow is not a frequent daily experience, using a one-shot questionnaire may not provide enough valid data for researchers to explore respondents' inner experiences. Most researchers agree that measuring the same individual repeatedly at different times or occasions may provide the optimal approach to studying experience (Stone et al., 1991; Wheeler and Reis, 1991). Therefore, a multi-measurement scheme, such as the experience sampling method, should be used in studying Web users' flow experiences. References Chen, H., Wigand, R.T. and Nilan, M. (1998), ``Optimal flow experience in Web navigation'', Effective Utilization and Management of Emerging Information Technologies, pp. 633-6. Proceedings of the 9th Information Resources Management Association, Boston, MA, 17-20 May. Chen, H., Wigand, R.T. and Nilan, M. (1999), ``Flow activities on the Web'', Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 585-608. Clarke, S.G. and Haworth, J.T. (1994), ```Flow' experience in the daily lives of sixth-form college students'', British Journal of Psychology, Vol. 85 No. 4, pp. 511-23. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975), Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1982), ``Towards a psychology of optimal experience'', in Wheeler, L. (Ed.), Annual Review of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 3, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, pp. 13-36.

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