Recently in the Boston Globe, columnist Ellen Goodman discusses the pitfalls of becoming a self-serve society, finally drawing the line when her husband wants to try a restaurant where you cook your own food.

“If I want to cook my own food,” Goodman quips, “I’ll eat at home.”

In “Self-serve and save,” (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/07/18/self_serve_and_slave/) Goodman continues: “Until then, I had drifted along with the do-it-yourself economy. I bused my own lunch trays. I booked my own movie tickets. I checked myself in at hotel kiosks. I even succumbed when an upscale seafood restaurant expected me to swipe my credit card through a handheld computer as if I were in a supermarket.”

The self-serve society we live in is not only to save corporate America money, as Goodman points out (among other things), but it also feeds into a sense of urgency we have created for ourselves. Don’t want to wait on line? Check out your own groceries at the supermarket. Don’t want to be placed on hold? Book your own reservations. Immediate? Yes. Better? Not necessarily.

Take communications, for example. The same sense of pervasive urgency drives how we communicate with our families, co-workers, and friends. We instant message, email, blog, and Twitter. Cell phones have practically become an extension of our anatomy. If we accidently leave a cell phone behind, it throws us into a state of panic. We can’t be reached!

Even words are abbreviated and common phrases have become acronyms. Do we really save time over a 24-hour period by using abbreviations? What does this say for the English language, or, for the sake of clarity?

Or, for the sake of relationships? The perceived miscommunication is if we don’t get an immediate response then something is wrong. “Did they not get the message?” “Do they not agree with my idea and don’t want to tell me?” “Did they even read it?” “Why haven’t they gotten back to me?” Suddenly we are filled with self-doubt, wondering if we should send another email. We forget it’s only been an hour since the last one was sent.

In this era of immediate and global communications, everything has to be now. While a few clicks and the “send” button can have its benefits, the growing technology of online tools can cut both ways. We have spell-check, but do we really know how to spell? We have facilitated an expectation that is becoming increasingly difficult to live up to. What does this say for future generations?

The irony, of course, is that we’re communicating faster yet having less time to get everything done, and we’re having less time to ourselves. We can only vacation in a hotel that’s wireless and stay in a geographic area that has acceptable cell phone service.

Remember, it’s summertime. Do we ever –- really — get away from it all?

Let me know what you think. ASAP.

Editors and reporters have less and less time to listen to press pitches and a few precious moments to scan news releases. They’re wearing multiple hats, working on unforgiving deadlines – especially as news organizations continue to lay off employees.

Every second counts when pitching the press these days, which is why at CCA we’ve developed an e-media kit.

Our e-media kit is an innovative way to open doors to newsrooms. It presents an easy and fast way for an editor to get a comprehensive snapshot of a news opportunity, providing everything from a client’s current news release, to FAQs and company history, to recent news clips, to management bios and head shots, and the company logo. In short, everything you would put in a traditional printed media kit, plus video clips and sound bites! All of it ready to download in seconds.

I was on the phone with a producer for a national broadcast news program last week. She initially said she didn’t have time to talk to me, but I asked her to log on to our client’s e-media kit, and we were soon in conversation. Our new approach converted “no time” to “tell me more.”

We’ve designed our e-media kit along the line of a web site’s home page, displaying branding and links to top line information and resources, and news releases and fact sheets, and video clips in an attractive design that fills the screen without the need to scroll. Reporters instantly see everything they might need, right at their finger tips.

This innovation has proved so useful that we expect it quickly to become the norm. And it’s no coincidence that we developed the first one for an alternative energy client—-eliminating the need for paper and printing required for a traditional press kit.

No folders. No stuffing. No postage. No sealing yucky tasting envelopes. No rushing to the post office. No reprinting to fix typos or to update information. Send it out 24/7, anywhere in the world. An unlimited supply. The digital media kit is here it’s all good.