quick fast and easy. that's how I like it.

Guest: Can you.. uhmmm... uhmmm... can you uhmm get me uhmm like a towel?

I don't fucking know what a "like a towel" is. I tried forgiving this particular individual for his complete lack of thought; in fact I thought I was pretty generous for not making him repeat "May I please have a towel?" But after much thought I have decided I am unusually uncomfortable with the state of communication in this country.

For the record, I believe that Twitter and Facebook are ruining English in America. Between the vanity, rampant vapidness, and overall bad composition, intellectualism and professionalism and the future of this country are going down the drain... in 140 characters or less.

I frequently read articles on the HuffPost for the explicit purpose of seeing the user-posted comments. I can't exactly remember the topic of one article in particular, but I will always remember one of the comments. An older person commented that kids should not be forced into college immediately after high school unless they were prepared for the challenge. S/he suggested that perhaps it would benefit the student and society as a whole if some kids worked for a year before heading to university, to acquire the patience for and appreciation of the value of the college experience. S/he also recommended reading during this year off to keep one's mind sharp and engaged.

Now, having been one of those students who took time off to work between college attempts, I was feeling a bit bashful about not reading (aside from those two forever-lost weeks I spent reading the Twilight series). And then I remembered that not once did I cease my daily HuffPost habit, or my blogging compulsion (because, at the time, it was a compulsion... I felt intellectually isolated so I wrote to myself rather frequently), and I did my best to maintain healthy and thoughtful conversations with my friends and family when I could. I think the point the commenter was trying to make wasn't to read for the sake of being able to say it was done, but to do it with purpose.

What scares me the most about this new wave of social media is the redefining of the concept of "sharing." The button to click on the Twitter site before tweeting reads "Share," but realistically it should be "BRAG" or "ANNOUNCE" or "THRUST UPON UNWILLING AUDIENCES."

Share, as defined by the FreeDictionary.com:
1. To participate in, use, enjoy, or experience jointly or in turns.
2. To relate (a secret or experience, for example) to another or others.

I worry that "relate" and "experience" are slowly becoming archaic terms; this constant flow of ALL information is rendering everything meaningless. At best a topic stays relevant for a day (and by "relevant" I'm not talking about #tags) before being wiped clean from the collective consciousness. I used to think that having the Internet for continual global documentation was a great thing, now I see that it is just a crutch, another excuse not to have to learn or to THINK. From the outside it might seem trivial that I concern myself with a person's inability to properly ask for a towel, but in reality everyone should be worried. If it is so easy to utter "May I have a towel please?" and it's still not getting done, what else have we lost as a society?

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The seven hours of sleep I managed to get last night have made a tremendous difference compared to the four hours I normally get on tortured Friday nights. I have already checked in two people (currently 10:06AM) and I have yet to lose my patience on the subject. I'm feeling particularly well and chatty, and as I was checking in one of the early arrivers while going through the process with exceptional efficiency, she noted about her check-in "Wow, that was quick, fast and easy. That's how I like it!"

It's not that I don't enjoy having guests at the desk, for the most part I like being on the receiving end of the little snapshots of strangers' lives. I just never understood the stereotype of front desk clerks silent clicking and randomly typing for what seems like hours in those awkward moments at check-in. I know that clicking and typing serve their purposes, I know first hand how complicated hospitality software can be, but I firmly believe that if you do your job well enough you should know from memory how to navigate menus and input information without wasting your guests' or your own time. Quick, fast, and easy: that's really how it should be.