In the 1950s, most children had to share a bedroom with their siblings.

By the 1980s and 1990s that trend had reversed.

With the exception of one or two people, all of my friends and acquaintances have had a private bedroom the entire time they were growing up.

Now, factor college into this equation.

More young people are choosing to go to college today than in the 1950s, and most of these incoming freshmen live in university housing, where they’re paired with a roommate.

Thus, we have two individuals, who have never had to share private space in their lives, suddenly thrown together in a tiny cluttered room, as if by the whims of some insane reality television show producer.

The affronting humanity of it all can be unsettling.

Living with another person, no matter how hard each person tries to hide his or her faults, reveals plenty of unpleasant mannerisms and secret identities.

Dealing with such problems gets compounded in residence halls, where the living space consists of a single room … there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

If I may paraphrase some of the best social advice given in the Bible: “Don’t make fun of a guy who has a toothpick stuck in his eye, since odds are there’s a two-by-four protruding from your own.”

In other words, as crazy as this new roommate seems to be, there are times when you seem pretty weird too.

Remember to never rule out the possibility that your own intolerance could be a majority of the problem.

I’d love to say the answer is to communicate, communicate, communicate, and all the problems will go away, but that simply isn’t true.

Aside from the subpar communication skills many people possess, the fact remains that talk is just talk. Actions will always speak far louder, and sometimes they work without talk to back them up at all.

Promises can be made, and broken, but things have already been done that can’t be taken back.

For instance, perhaps you’ve noticed the new stranger in your personal space adores shrimp-flavored ramen noodles. It would probably be simple to pick up a six pack of the noodles while you’re at the grocery store.

They’re cheap anyway. “Hey, I saw these were on sale, and I thought I’d pick some up for you.”

Without having to endure any long discussions about feelings and privacy, you’ve let the other person know you want to have a good relationship with him or her and you are willing to do things to make this happen.

Or perhaps you’re living with a roommate in an apartment, but this person won’t wash the dishes to save his or her slacker life.

One effective way to deal with this is to only wash your own dishes, and wash them soon after you are finished using them.

Habits like these will send a message you’re not willing to clean up after another person, no matter what.

Besides, there’s only so many smelly dishes people can stand before they just have to wash them — especially if these dirty dishes “accidentally” end up on their beds.

Not that I advocate drastic measures most of the time, of course, but on the occasions when nothing seems to be getting through, a conference with one’s resident assistant or a house meeting for everyone in the household might become necessary.

Columns reflect the opinions of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.