We live in a world where our technology has gone to Mars, but our common sense barely made it out of 1990.
What happened?
Here we are in 2024. AI can write poems, and our fridges can tell us when the milk’s expired, and yet, we’re more confused than ever about what’s real, right, and even rational.
Somehow, in our relentless quest to innovate, we’ve misplaced the most basic tool we had—the one that helped us decide what’s true, what’s fake, what matters, and what’s nonsense.
Call it “common sense” or “gut instinct,” but whatever it is, we’re desperately short on it these days.
Some say it’s the information overload.
Others blame social media.
But the truth is, the whole concept of common sense has slowly unraveled, and it’s got less to do with tech and more to do with how we "think" these days.
So let’s break it down and find out how our collective common sense went missing—and if it’s even possible to get it back.
1. The Rise of Complexity and the Death of Simplicity
If there’s one thing our modern lives have taught us, it’s that nothing is as straightforward as it seems.
We’re in an age where every question has a thousand answers, every choice has a hundred options, and every decision feels like solving a Rubik’s Cube.
And because of this constant need to navigate complexity, we’ve forgotten how to trust our first instincts, which are usually where common sense lives.
Take something simple, like food.
A few decades ago, you knew to avoid foods with too much sugar or things that made you feel sluggish.
Now?
We’ve got a hundred diets, with debates that make it sound like choosing your next meal is akin to picking a religion.
The over-complication of everyday choices has killed our ability to trust simple judgments.
The more nuanced we become, the less clear our thinking gets, until the idea of “basic wisdom” seems almost obsolete.
2. The Information Deluge: Drowning in Data, Starving for Wisdom
In the 90s, you had the evening news.
Today, you have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and a never-ending feed of data coming at you 24/7.
And that’s not even counting what you’ll Google at 2 a.m. when you can’t sleep.
Every fact, every opinion, every side of the story is shoved into your face until you’re left feeling both overwhelmed and paralyzed.
The irony?
We know more but understand less.
We’ve become data-rich and wisdom-poor, bombarded with information but unable to distill it into something we can actually "use".
This info overload doesn’t make us smarter; it blinds us.
It gives us the illusion of intelligence while dulling our most basic instincts.
Example:
Think about when you’re at the grocery store, trying to pick a cereal. In an ideal world, you’d trust your gut and go with something familiar.
But instead, we stand there analyzing ingredients, reading labels, and pulling out our phones for nutrition breakdowns.
It’s not that analysis is bad, but over-analysis can choke our ability to decide.
3. The Influence of Social Media: The Echo Chamber Effect
Remember a time when people used to “agree to disagree”?
These days, it feels like you have to pick a side on every issue, no matter how trivial or complex, and then defend it to the death.
Social media has taken the tribalism of human nature and turned it up to eleven.
It’s not enough to have an opinion—you’ve got to take a stand, find your group, and hunker down in your echo chamber.
This mentality has essentially buried common sense.
Why?
Because we no longer weigh information on its own merit; we’re judging everything based on who said it, how many followers they have, and whether it aligns with our chosen tribe’s view of the world.
Social media has made us terrified of gray areas, turning the world into a black-and-white battlefield where nuance and reason rarely survive.
Example:
Take the topic of environmental issues.
Common sense might tell us that plastic pollution is terrible and worth fighting against. But these days, discussions quickly descend into debates about corporate responsibility, government policy, and personal freedom, until the original, simple truth—“pollution is bad”—gets buried.
And it’s not that these discussions aren’t important; it’s that we lose sight of the obvious in our attempt to solve everything at once.
4. We’re Obsessed with Being Right
We’ve got an odd relationship with being right in 2024.
There’s an ego hit when someone disagrees with us online, like we’ve lost some personal credibility, and we’ve learned to double down rather than back down.
To admit you might be wrong?
It’s practically social suicide.
As a result, we’ve become incredibly reluctant to learn from each other, even when basic, common-sense solutions are staring us in the face.
In philosophy, common sense is that little voice that reminds you maybe you don’t know everything.
But now, thanks to “expert” advice and social media gurus, we’ve been taught to think that common sense is inferior to expert opinions.
So instead of trusting ourselves, we’re trusting the masses—and the result is chaos.
Example:
Let’s look at the debate around remote work.
Common sense might suggest a balance: sometimes people do great work from home; other times, being in the office is beneficial.
But instead, we’ve turned it into a “remote work is the future” versus “remote work is the death of productivity” debate.
Each side digs in, with no room for the simplest solution: that maybe, just maybe, both can work.
5. Common Sense Requires Thinking—And We’re Doing Less of That
We used to be able to think critically, to weigh pros and cons, to sit with an issue before making a snap decision.
But now, we’re in the age of instant answers.
Why think when Google has the answer?
Why deliberate when you can Tweet?
The problem with this instant-access mindset is that it’s slowly degrading our ability to think independently.
Instead of digesting information, we skim it.
Instead of weighing options, we rely on polls.
This habit has eroded common sense because common sense is a muscle—you’ve got to use it for it to stay sharp.
So, How Do We Get Common Sense Back?
It’s not gone forever, but reviving it requires a shift in mindset.
It means slowing down, not overcomplicating things, and taking time to think, really "think", without distractions.
Here’s the challenge: the next time you’re faced with a choice, skip the research.
Don’t Google it, don’t check Twitter.
Ask yourself what feels right, and give yourself permission to trust that.
Try choosing based on your instincts, rather than drowning yourself in data.
In a world where everyone’s constantly connected and over-informed, the simple wisdom of common sense might just be the most rebellious thing you can embrace.
Think, trust, and maybe, just maybe, leave the algorithms out of it.
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