It can be hard to keep up with the issues close to us. At the same time, it’s unsustainable to expect to know comprehensively all of the votes, proposals and cases you want to keep an eye on.

Using technology for civic engagement is kind of like using technology to socialize. It’s convenient, it keeps you in-the-know in real time, and a lot of it is BS so you shouldn’t rely on tech exclusively for this aspect of your life. I’ve talked a lot about media literacy in older posts and all of those rules apply here. With that in mind, here is a list couple of tools you can use to rely on someone else to put the most relevant stuff in front of you in a consumable and timely manner.

1. Countable – for being generally informed
   Countable is an app that keeps you up to date with bills on the Congressional agenda. It seems dedicated to creating a space for unbiased discourse. When you select a bill you see an objective summary, and then you can scan the comments For and Against. They use reddit-style up votes to make it easy to find the strongest arguments, instead of having to sleuth through low-blows and poorly written rants to get to the comments that actually open your perspectives up a bit.Still, in the interest of sustainability you might just want to stick to the platform’s content to inform yourself and skip the comment section if you’re not in the mood for tea. Or perhaps a compromise is to just read the top ones? It’s a slippery slope, I’ll admit.The app is marketed as a kind of polling tool, where you can vote Yea or Nay and the results will be shared with your reps. I’m not sure how responsive legislators are to these metrics, though. I’d be interested to find out!
2. GovTrack – to subscribe to specific issues/areas
   This tool helps you keep track of political activity that aligns with issues you want to be particularly tuned into. It sends email updates based on political activities you subscribe to. You can track specific members of congress, bills, votes, committees, and ‘subjects’ like health or even subcategories that get real granular such as ‘allergies’. How cool is that?
3. Oh wait.
   The tech tools I’m familiar with lean partisan. I’m committed to writing these posts for everyone so I’ll avoid those. But I’m sure conservative and liberal users can sign up for SMS action updates through special interest groups that align with their values, online communities (have your media literacy toolbelt handy for these!) and more.

Can I really call this a list if there are only two items? Help! What tech resources do you use to keep up with the most important things?

A final note on using tech for good: be a picky subscriber. Too many sign ups and you’ll be overwhelmed and tuning entirely out in no time. This is a challenge for me but I know we can do this together! Happy nerding.