Many of us come to college wrapped in our safe little bubbles, unaware of the stupidity that most of our peers display on a day-to-day basis. Our parents taught us well, and we come to college expecting everyone to behave as if they have common sense. Boy, are we shocked when we learn that common sense seems to evade even some of our most intelligent peers. Common sense and intelligence are not synonymous terms. I’m sure many of us may have been told by our parents that we have book sense but lack common sense. This certainly holds true for many people.
We live in an age when we have infinite amounts of knowledge literally at our fingertips, and most of you refuse to use it. I have seen countless people on Twitter take UberFacts seriously or some type of satirical news source seriously when all you have to do is exit out of Twitter, slide over to your Safari app and Google the information to verify. This process takes all of 10 seconds, and yet people continue to go uninformed.
Our generation is so tremendously lazy and ridiculous. One would think that common sense would tell someone to double-check information they are unsure about so as to not sound like a complete moron on the Internet. This never occurs to some people. I am still dumbfounded by this. Maybe it’s because we’re so distracted by all of the things we have going on – social media, iPhones, laptops, TVs, etc. I won’t exclude myself from this because I find myself constantly glued to Twitter, as many of you may know.
Are we allowed any leeway because we live in this highly technological society? Can we still have this same leeway when we cannot competently handle our affairs? Our parents would say no (maybe with a few more expletives). While we’re behaving like idiots, they’re judging us with the utmost care. Common sense goes a long way. It simply requires observation and thinking.
I know many of you can’t be bothered to think; you’d rather just have your smartphone do it for you. I would argue that common sense would compel people to take advantage of the limitless knowledge that the Internet has to offer. We are so fortunate to live in a society where we have access to online sources so that we can further our knowledge and broaden our minds.
I believe that common sense is a learned ability (if it were a tangible item). From a generation that is strung out on ADHD medication, technology and other mindless babble, common sense isn’t so commonplace. I cannot even envision the children raised by our generation when they become our age. The cycle will just continue. I encourage everyone to read more. Read more news articles, scholarly journals or anything that allows you to think outside the realms of your smartphone or tablet.
Carl Case is a senior psychology and Spanish double major from Brookhaven.
-Carl Case
cicase@go.olemiss.edu
