The Experiment: Technology Helps Us Have the Right Conversations

It can be difficult trying to coordinate four individuals and two families living together. Granted this is not really that many people, it still can be complicated knowing when people are going to be in and out. Plus, it can be hard communicating with everyone about things that need to be done or issues that need to be discussed. That is where technology is helping us become a better community. In particular, Google Docs and Google Calendar.

With Google Calendar, each family in our apartment has made a calendar of family activities and shared it. This way, we know when people will be around, when they will be out, when it is good to plan to have people over, and when we can get together and talk about how things are going in the apartment.

With Google Docs, we plan ahead for the conversations we need to have at our next “Family Dinner.” We plan to eat one meal together per week to discuss how things are going. Prior to this, each of us updates a shared spreadsheet on Google Docs. It is a simple document, with a column for positive things, negative things, and other issues. Anything might come up on that from who is or isn’t keeping up their chores, how to handle mail distribution, how to make sure we pray together, or when why we still haven’t beaten a game on the Wii. By doing this, we all can think about things ahead of time and be ready to discuss things at our dinner. We also make sure that we don’t miss anything important that needs to be talked about.

This may be the sort of thing that could be useful families and roommates or even married couples. Having a regular conversations about how things are going and clear communication are crucial for all close relationships. Many, including myself, have lamented how technology often causes us to withdraw from community and makes us more detached from the people around us. Here is a case where technology, especially newer collaborative and social technologies can have the opposite effect.