Where Has Common Sense Gone?

Lately, I’ve been asking myself a question that seems to echo louder with every trip to the store, every drive across town, every scroll through social media: where has common sense gone?

It’s like we’ve entered an era where the most basic, once-automatic instincts — things your grandma would have called “just knowing better” — have evaporated. People walk into traffic while staring at their phones. Drivers make left turns from the far-right lane. A simple set of instructions somehow becomes a scavenger hunt for the obvious.

It’s not that people aren’t smart. We live in an age of endless information. The problem is, knowing facts isn’t the same as having practical judgment. Common sense is about applying what you know in the right way at the right time — noticing your surroundings, catching the small details, thinking one step ahead. Somewhere along the way, we traded that in for distraction, convenience, and the belief that “someone else will figure it out.”

Maybe part of the blame lies with how connected we are — and how disconnected we’ve become from actually paying attention. We multitask ourselves into oblivion, walking through life with just enough awareness to keep moving but not enough to really see what’s happening. It’s like living among zombies: bodies in motion, minds on autopilot, unaware of the ripple effects of their choices.

What worries me most isn’t just the little annoyances (though they add up). It’s the bigger truth they reveal — that inattention to detail, over time, becomes a habit. And habits shape the kind of people we are, the communities we live in, and the example we set for the next generation.

Common sense isn’t complicated. It’s noticing the obvious. It’s double-checking the lock, reading the label before you drink it, holding the door for the person behind you. It’s thinking, “If everyone did this, would it work?” before you do it yourself.

I don’t know if common sense is gone forever, but I do know it’s something we can choose to practice. It’s about slowing down just enough to see what’s right in front of us. Maybe if more of us did that — really paid attention — we’d find that common sense never left. It’s just been buried under all the noise.

And frankly, it’s time we dig it back up.