Theoretical Framework
The Flow Theory
The proponent of this study is Mihaly Csikszentmehalyi an American-Hungarian psychologist born
on September 26, 1934 he recognized and name the philosophical concept ‘flow’. Mihalye and the
others began searching flow after Mihalye become fascinated by artist who would essentially get
lost on their work. Artist especially painters got so immersed in their work that they disregard their
need of food, water and even sleep. The theory of flow came about csikszentmehalyi tried to
understand this phenomenon by these artist.
Flow refers to the “complete engagement with the immersion in an activity” Hoffman & Novack
(2009). Flow occurs when the players enter a mental state often in an environment where the
challenges math players abilities. Csikszentmehalyi & levfevre (1989) the flow state describe a
mental state in which a person is completely focused on a single task or activity. They are directing
all their attention toward the task, and they do not experienced many thoughts about themselves or
their performance some people refers to this informally “being in the zone” Stocky (2022). During
the flow, attention is freely invested to achieve the person goals because there is no disorder to
strengthen out or no threat to defend against (Csikszentmehalyi 2015). (Stocky 2022) stated that the
tasks that tend to encourage a state of flow often share similar characteristics. This task maybe
challenging, rewarding and in depth. He also stated sign that a person is in the state of flow the first
is the focus, lack of self-consciousness, enjoyment, and persistence.
And there are also impact of online games to their academic performance in school negatively and
positively, Dumrique & Castillo (2017) The academic performance of the students is not affected
even if they play online games there grades are still good enough even if they spent time playing
online games the reasons is that they only play online games on weekends or before going to bed.
While Freeman (2008) states that online games are criticized by educators because many students
invest more time and money to online games that are greatly affect their study, social interactions
and physical, mental health which leads to tragedy of online addiction.
The flow theory has been used intis study because it best explained why students spends more
time playing in the online world rather than the real world for entertainment, to relieve stress, for
interacting , or for exploration. And also explains what are the impacts of online games to their
academic performance in school, if their affected negatively or positively.