THE BODY IN FLOW ■ 99events are the only “reality” that determines what they experience. For
such individuals, joining a fancy health club should be almost a guaran
tee that they will enjoy themselves. However, enjoyment, as we have
seen, does not depend on what you do, but rather on hou> you do it.
In one of our studies we addressed the following question: Are
people happier when they use more material resources in their leisure
activities? Or are they happier when they invest more of themselves? We
tried to answer these questions with the Experience Sampling Method
(ESM), the procedure I developed at the University of Chicago to study
the quality of experience. As described earlier, this method consists in
giving people electronic pagers, or beepers, and a booklet of response
sheets. A radio transmitter is programmed to send signals about eight
times a day, at random intervals, for a week. Each time the pager signals,
respondents fill out a page of the booklet, indicating where they are and
what they are doing and with whom, and rating their state of mind on
a variety of dimensions, such as a seven-point scale ranging from “very
happy” to “very sad.”
What we found was that when people were pursuing leisure activi
ties that were expensive in terms of the outside resources required—
activities that demanded expensive equipment, or electricity, or other
forms of energy measured in BTUs, such as power boating, driving, or
watching television—they were significantly less happy than when in
volved in inexpensive leisure. People were happiest when they were just
talking to one another, when they gardened, knitted, or were involved
in a hobby; all of these activities require few material resources, but they
demand a relatively high investment of psychic energy. Leisure that uses
up external resources, however, often requires less attention, and as a
consequence it generally provides less memorable rewards.
The Joys of Movement
Sports and fitness are not the only media of physical experience that use
the body as a source of enjoyment, for in fact a broad range of activities
rely on rhythmic or harmonious movements to generate flow. Among
these dance is probably the oldest and the most significant, both for its
universal appeal and because of its potential complexity. From the most
isolated New Guinea tribe to the polished troupes of the Bolshoi Ballet,
the response of the body to music is widely practiced as a way of
improving the quality of experience.
Older people may consider dancing at clubs a bizarre and senseless
ritual, but many teenagers find it an important source of enjoyment.