Found an article on the China Daily site reporting on the Pew  Internet and American Life Project (which I had just noticed on the AP wire). 

     The report is large and covers a lot of ground, but the US wire agencies decided to lead with this theme, which CD picked up on:

Teenagers still value phone calls and face-to-face meetings with
friends even as they frequent online hangouts like Facebook and
MySpace, a new study finds.

Nearly 40 percent of teens say they talk to friends on a traditional
wired phone every day, and 35 percent say they do so on cell phones,
the Pew Internet and American Life Project said Wednesday, analyzing
its phone surveys from late 2006. Thirty-one percent of teens say they
spend time in person with friends every day.

Fewer teens say they communicate daily using instant messaging, text
messages or internal messaging systems at Facebook, News Corp.’s
MySpace or another social-networking site.

 Perhaps this is supposed to be reassuring to old fogeys, like me, who might fret about what is becoming of the kids…they spend all day on those damn machines and have no time for "real" human interactions.

       But not so fast… First of all, internet or wireless or other non-face-to-face electronic communications might actually be good, insofar as they complement other live and together interactions.  Whoever has been afraid that the kids are becoming computer zombies (not me, really; I think the kids are all right…), may have been overestimating the time and effect of on-line conversations. Turns out, for American kids at least, texting and Facebooking (yes, all now verbs!) are not nearly as big or important to their social lives as some parents may have feared.  The young ones have always had it figured out: the on-line links are only one facet of their social webs.  Face-to-face has always mattered to them.

     Second, however, China Daily really should make more of a point that this report reflects American cultural trends, and these may not be the same as Chinese practices.  As I noted a couple of posts ago, there are reports that suggest the Chinese young people understand and socially utilize electronic communications differently than their American peers.  We need to keep that in mind.  It should not be supposed that American practices will become common in China, or vice versa.  The world is not that flat…

     Which brings me to my final point for today.  I have, thus far, been wondering out loud what Facebooking and texting might mean for Confucian values. And the Pew report would be reassuring along those lines.   But what about Taoism?  What do these new means of human connection suggest for Taoist views of the world?

      Quickly and crudely, my first sense is that Taoists would not be enamored of the possibility of increased and intensified interconnectivity.  What has happened to solitude?  Taoism does not place as much importance on social relationships in defining an individual.  Rather, a person is what his or her te (inherent nature) and tao (evolving immediate context) determine.  Being a part of social networks can be a reflection of one’s tao and te, but such connections are not necessary for the full expression of one’s place in the broader cosmic Tao.

     Taoists, then, would neither celebrate the new technologies nor fear them. Electronic messaging is simply another human invention and intervention into the unfolding of Way.  A Taoist might warn against getting overly obsessed about this or that new gadget, since none of them are really essential to Way.  We could live, and have lived, without them.  But there would be no sin in using them and finding some fleeting joy and momentary satisfactions.  No big deal.

      After all, the evanescence and impermanence of digital communications is rather like our existence in Way.  Chuang Tzu does not know where the dream ends and reality begins.  The virtual is similarly interstitial.