Let's look at the words Common Sense, shall we?

Common: Common can have multiple meanings, however the one that is used here is "widespread; general; ordinary"

Sense: Another word with multiple meanings, this is the definition used in this particular compound. "sound practical intelligence".

So what is Common Sense? It is widespread knowledge - stuff most people should know.

But just because something is common, it doesn't garantee that EVERYONE should know it - just most.

Definitions courtesy of Dictionary.com

If I were to go to have a video game party and I invited 9 friends who all have played a SNES, and 1 friend who's only played internet games, do you think it's possible this friend will lack some "common knowledge"?

Gaming is a Widespread pastime (so it is common). So most people out there would know things like

• If the screen doesn't change for more than 60 seconds, turn off the system, take the game out, clean it, and put it back in
• If the main menu takes too long to load, try pressing "start"

So if I would tell that web-game-playing friend to turn on a SNES, put a game in, and then the game refuses to play, should I really make him feel bad for not knowing to shut it off and blow? It is "common knowledge" to a lot of people, but it's expected he wouldn't know.

That would be like telling my mom "it's common sense..." when she thinks she can shut off my laptop by unplugging it. Since she doesn't use any computers, it wouldn't really be common sense to her now would it?

Some people would say "well, video games and computers haven't been out that long, it's rude to expect everyone to have adapted to them".

So let's take a look at something more basic

Looking at both sides of the street before crossing

We all know a person who tends to forget to look, and I'm sure we all make fun or, or yell at, that person. However, has anyone wondered why he or she doesn't have this "common sense"? Lack of Practice.

Simple as that.

Looking both ways is a habit most people have, but what if you don't go out much? Or what if you weren't allowed to go out much when you were younger? Or what if everytime you went out there was always someone who had to chaperone and make sure you were safe, thus getting you used to just following their shoes instead of looking up? Or what if you lived in a town where people drive slowly and stop for just about any walker regardless of if they're crossing at the right time and place or not?

To people like that (like me), not looking is a hard habit to break. It's not necessarily that we lack the knowledge, it's just hard to break the habit of ignoring it.

The next time you think someone "lacks common sense", instead of rubbing it in their faces, why don't you just teach them what they're missing? That'd be the nice and more efficient thing to do.

Like, don't let the DVD menu repeat itself over and over just because one of your family members doesn't know that they have to press "enter" in the remote. Some people don't use remotes at all! Some only use it to turn stuff on and change the volume, but may not necessarily know what the other buttons do. My mother (who finally learned how to use a DVD player after multiple attempts of teaching her) would probably turn off the dvd player and turn it back on if you asked her to go back to the menu. she has enough common knowledge when it comes to dvd players to know that would work, but not enough to reach for the "menu" buttons on the remote and the dvd player itself. The nice thing for me to do, if she ever needs to use it, would be to explain to her and/or write directions on a piece of paper for future reference.