A eulogy for common sense

It is sad that with great sorrow, a quite a bit of sarcasm, I am announcing the untimely passing of a dear old friend of ours known as common sense. Common sense was once a beloved and building force that helped humans make choices, but it has now been officially declared deceased with its final breath being lost in a flood of Facebook conspiracy posts and TikTok challenges. We are all to indirectly blame for its tragic end as it was brought about due to a combination of neglect, fatal overdose of entitled stupidity and ultimately endless exposure to “influences wisdom|.

It is here we all gather today to remember, and mourn, what it once was.

When Common Sense Roamed Free

Once upon a time there was a mythical and legendary time which was known as “Before the Internet” and it was here where common sense thrived. It was during this era people used to look both directions before crossing the road and for some magical reason we didn’t eat laundry detergent (although to be fair I am sure we all did a ton of stupid things but shhh doesn’t suit the narrative). Back in these legendary days, we had an idea that the lack of common sense was met with a raised eyebrow and someone saying – “What the heck were you thinking?” but nowadays it is turned into a viral video with brand sponsorship.

People used to understand many of the basics such as:

• Coffee is hot. Handle with care.
• Knives are sharp. Do not test this on your fingers.
• If a sign says “Wet Paint,” you don’t need to touch it to confirm.
• If something is on fire, don’t pour petrol on it to see what happens.

Ah, simpler times.

When Stupidity Became Trendy

While this peaceful era lasted quite some time, we started to descend into the dark ages, and while technology should have brought us a new era of enlightenment, it instead beat up and brutally murdered common sense, but how? As people started to gain access to limitless information (and this is something that’s going to get worse with generative AI) they started to also gain limitless confidence within their ignorance. What is the point of listening to any experts when you can just Google a random thing and then just believe whatever the first answer that supports your opinion, without actually doing any critical evaluation of the evidence that is there.

The warning signs were all there:

• “Caution: Coffee is hot” labels became necessary because someone, somewhere, was shocked by this revelation.
• “Do not eat” warnings were slapped on silica gel packets because apparently, it wasn’t obvious.
• People started arguing that the Earth is flat because “I did my research” meant watching a YouTube video made by someone in their mum’s basement.

Social Media & Reality TV

Two key developments can be seen as the culprits for why common sense died, and those are social media and reality TV. Social media turned everyone who has a smartphone into an expert while reality TV rewarded all stupidity with fortune, fame and sponsorships all in the name of the attention economy¹. One good example of this is the Tide Pod Challenge, which proved that natural selection is still very much at work, and was also very dangerous. Another example is “influencers” convincing people to drink celery juice as it could be used to cure everything and anything, which proves a good marketing budget will always beat logic every single time – something many countries such as Russia have learnt can cause very dangerous changes should they be believed.

Reality TV has taught the whole world that simply being the loudest and most obnoxious person will always win, and funny enough we have seen this in practice now with Donald Trump or Krasnov. No longer can I tell people you always make sure you get your English and Maths, because you will need them to be successful when a man who can barely read is President of what used to be the most influential country in the world, just because social media could be abused for this purpose². Common sense tried its hardest but it wasn’t able to compete in a world where people care more about clout over clarity, but I’m afraid common sense fought bravely but fell to a culture that further celebrates the absurd.

Can Common Sense Be Resurrected?

Now with all joking aside, it is worth discussing what we can do about all of this. A lot of common sense is still here today when it comes to a single person, but not when it comes to a hive, and this is something we need to change as a society. We should get back to reading an article and not just a headline before we make an opinion. We need to ensure we understand what we read and not just toss it into generative AI to give it their opinion on it, which is even more of a bad idea when different companies are creating their version, which can give different versions of an event (cough Deepseek, Cough Grok). We need to understand that there are experts that carried out research, have doctorates and such and that those should be considered as sources for medical advice and not just an “infulencer” who discovered something amazing and even then we need to understand that even research can be debated – we need to learn to critually evaluate what we read.

We need to go back to a time when companies weren’t sued due to a knife being sharp and someone just not being aware of it, or due to being burnt because the coffee was too hot and they mishandled it. We need to bring back the phrase – “What the heck were you thinking” as a response to all of this.

Common sense isn’t dead, nor is it gone forever. While it may have in the grave it waits until society understands we have made a mistake but until then we honour its memory and hope for a swift yet miraculous resurrection.

1. Jokes aside, the attention economy is the idea that your attention is a limited resource and companies battle over it so they can sell you products or services via adverts. It is often why attention spans are going down as companies want to keep people glued to their devices. If you are interested in learning more, click here: The Attention Economy. ↩︎
2. Again, jokes aside and seeing I don’t tend to want to talk about politics on this website, it is worth looking into the facts of the election. The Election Truth Alliance reported on the 2024 US election, which is quite eye-opening. ↩︎