There is a very useful tool most of us have been developing throughout our lives; a tool it seems, is becoming less and less necessary.
Today’s quote is titled: SO RARE
A sense that has always been so common, is increasingly becoming, so rare. Don’t lose your common sense; Use it. Unquote.
I start with a definition: Common sense is sound, practical judgment concerning everyday matters, or a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge in a manner that is shared by nearly all people.
This to me, still begs the question. If people are divided into groups having their own ideas and beliefs about life and living, it seems to me that common sense will vary. What makes sense to one group may not to another.
Anyway…, you hear it all the time, “Use your common sense”, or “Where is your common sense”? To hear these, tells me that there is still such a thing. These also suggest that people fail to use it, or that it has become, often enough, unnecessary.
So, why would one person use common sense more than another? To answer my own question, I am not sure. But I have my own thoughts about why.
I can’t say it enough. We are constantly distracted, addicted, and moving so fast, we keep missing the present.
In these times, I must wonder if this new reality means that the use of common sense may be less necessary, or that it simply does not occur to us, because there is so much we don’t have to think about in a highly automated world wherein Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming a new normal.
Furthermore, knowing when and where to use common sense may be complicated in terms of where or when to use it.
For example, is the use of common sense different in cyberspace from what it is in real life? I ask because, as much time as we spend in cyber space, the use of common sense may have a different meaning simply because it is in a different realm; a realm where being human is not applicable. Where there is such a thing as virtual reality; wherein that reality, you can opt out of thinking because so much is done for you with a click, an alert, or a notification.
But these are the same people who exist in the real world. This suggest to me that the use of common sense may be more about where, than when.
I find myself in the space between cyberspace and the real world where the use of common sense seems arbitrary.
I am also noticing that both worlds seem to be blending into one. On the other hand, it may simply be one generation passing and another evolving.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder what will become of common sense. Will it become obsolete or its use completely unnecessary?
Will “Nearly all people” mean something else or will common sense become something else; something uncommon? Will the result become the new normal? Will it go the way of THE truth where, seemingly by design, there is more than one truth about the same thing? Will the invitation to the next party read, BYOB, meaning, bring your own bottle, or BYOT, meaning, bring your own truth? Will it read, BYOCS, meaning, bring your own common sense?
For me, being of a different era, at times I get overwhelmed when navigating in cyberspace. Keeping up with the pace of change is a challenge. The speed and the many and constant distractions seem unnatural to me, and I know I am not alone here.
On the other hand, here in the real world where real people are living real lives, it is where Life happens. As far as “life’ in cyber space is concerned, we had to navigate and make sense of a virtual world while being in the real world. One mind here, one mind there.
But that aside for now, and back to this reality, I believe rapid advances in almost every aspect of life leaves us less to think about. We can click our way through life with answers at our fingertips in seconds; sometimes instantly. We can sit back and wait for alerts or notifications. We can let our minds take a back seat.
So, what to make sense of; the speed of change or the effect it has on daily living? Does the use of common sense have to keep up with the speed of change or the velocity of living? Does it matter at all which? Do we even have to think about it?
What about thinking? As with so much, will the increase and sophistication of automation and AI render our ability to think, less and less necessary? I can see how it can. I can also see how our increasing reliance on these can change when or where we use common sense.
If a time comes when we don’t have to think about everyday things, what would be the need to make sense of it all? I believe less thinking can lead to less need to use common sense. But this of course does not need to be the case, right? We will always have some degree of control.
Already, the speed of change affects our ability to pay attention to what we know and must keep up with, that it becomes difficult to make sense of it all. That using common sense becomes something else. That knowing something becomes something else in the seamlessness of the moment, makes the use of common sense a useless mental exercise. How, where, and when to use common sense? For all I know, those of you who will inherit the next era, may find that all I just talked about does not make sense. Time will tell.