It’s also worth noting that while, yes, time flies when we’re on our phones (or when we’re binge-watching movies or television shows on the couch), that’s not true flow. Instead, it’s what Csikszentmihalyi referred to as “junk flow,” which is a state of hypnosis rather than of active engagement—in fact, he described it as the feeling that results when you are “becoming addicted to a superficial experience.” While these things may produce a sense of flow at the beginning, “after a while [they] become something you [are] addicted to instead of something that makes you grow.” (I think of
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