Pecan pie.

@blobbles: correct about every generation, etc. However, there remains the question of whether or not it's a good idea - when things are called 'progress', it doesn't automatically mean they're better - no point in allowing others to make decisions for you, complete with all the hype involved (IT'S NEW! Kneejerk reaction for many is that 'it's better' (especially in the US - look at all advertising, which is not in place to tell you the truth about anything, or to help you think clearly)). The ability to communicate with people all over the planet is indeed a fine thing, as well as the access to information (and bypass censors, etc.) But when the person with whom you're having a face-to-face conversation is continually dropping out of it to check the weather, the exact time of day of Charlemagne's birth or whatever, it strikes me that something is happening that reduces actual physical presence to some kind of secondary importance. So it's a matter of degree - but what does it mean when this all becomes a social norm to (IMO) overdue it? Why is this happening? What's wrong with 'the meat world' these days when everybody seems to want to get out of it as often as possible?

@magnifico: Yes, it's their choice, fine. Thinking and choosing is fine (cf. lemmings). And I agree it's cool up to a point. But why is it that people seem more & more interested in NOT dealing with those who are physically around them? Isn't this a bit anti-social? Anyway, a chat is not the same when it's only done with words, usually words in print. Do you smile to people with smileyfaces? A little one-dimensional, isn't it? Think of the by-now famous & widespread social ineptitude of geeks etc.

All a matter of degree, all open to free choice, but the choices people make say something about who they are, both individually and collectively, and the reasons for them being made in the way that they are reflect influences that they/we may not be fully aware of.
Look for forthcoming novel on this theme by a former foreign resident of Kunming.

And there's always the study of Chinese for those who can't yet function independently in it - tends to broaden one's ideas, social horizons and interests, as well as deepen one's independence and ameliorate many cultural annoyances and frustrations.
You could also get involved in charitable work, something to help even the social playing field - rural kids' education, for instance - though this may require a little cash and time away from the bars - but...let's not leave out the bars.

I've been to acceptable western classical music concerts here, and Yang Liping herself was certainly a fine dancer and choreographer.

I tend to agree with the drift of your comment, but I'm not sure how I would define insanity, and there is no 'normality' beyond the norm (generally-agreed-upon standard) that the society in question happens to hold; and the norm varies in space & time. Maybe that's rather pedantic...at any rate I agree that things are getting what, from my perspective, seems weird - I tend to do best either when writing, which for me is not about 'making friends', or when I meet people in the 5 'normal' dimensions of perception, face to face. Walking down the street or riding public transport surrounded by people more than 50% of whom are involved more with some electronic device in their hands &/or ears than they are with their surroundings is a bit sad.
As for comments here, I can't quite understand why people turn disagreement into personal competition, complete with insults - as if a statement can be disproved or made irrelevant by attacking the person who has made it, rather than by dealing with its internal logic and correspondence to agreed-upon 'reality' (whatever that is these days), regardless of how it is arrived at. I think ego-competitions over who's correct & who's not are simply signs of weak egos. Comments?