Words

Here’s a really interesting excerpt from Finding Flow that explains about why US teenagers (and adults) watch so much TV, even though they experience at least 2x more enjoyment in more “active” activities:

Not all free-time activities are the same. One major distinction is between active and passive leisure, which have quite different psychological effects. For example, US teenagers experience flow (defined as high-challenged, high-skill moments) about 13% of the time that they spend watching TV, 34% of the time they do hobbies, and 44% of the time they are involved in sports and games. This suggests that hobbies are about two and a half times more likely to produce a state of heightened enjoyment than TV does, and active games and sports about three times more. Yet these same teenagers spend at least four times more of their free hours watching TV than doing hobbies or sports. Similar ratios are also true for adults. Why would we spend four times more time doing something that has less than half the chance of making us feel good?

When we ask the participants of our studies this question, a consistent explanation begins to appear. The typical teenager admits that biking, or playing basketball, or playing the piano are more enjoyable than roaming through the mall or watching TV. But, they say, to get organized for a basketball game takes time — one has to change clothes, make arrangements. It takes at least half an hour of often dull practice each time one sits down at the piano before it begins to be fun. In other words, each of the flow-producing activities requires an initial investment of attention before it beings to be enjoyable. One needs such disposable “activation energy” to enjoy complex activities. If a person is too tired, anxious, or lacks the discipline to overcome that initial obstacle, he or she will have to settle for something that, although less enjoyable, is more accessible.

If it is indeed the case that an “initial time investment” needs to occur before teenagers and adults can get enjoyment out of active leisure activities. Then we might be in trouble in today’s world where focus and concentration are lacking, and delayed gratification is overshadowed by immediate gratification.

We need to realign ourselves as to understand and leverage delayed gratification. For example, in order to achieve better enjoyment from our activities (leisure or not), we should realize that an initial time/effort investment must take place. Nothing comes easy, and it always takes discipline to achieve anything worthwhile.