I think when i heard that teenage girls, around my age were asking if smoking and doing drugs would make the baby smaller, so it would make giving birth easier. And also the fact that this question is the most asked question for midwives/doctors, thats when i realised these people cannot have common sense. I feel like i'm a dying breed, as arrogant as that sounds.

No I don't. I do think "common sense" is a bit of an overused term though. The thing is what seems to be "common sense" to one generation, isn't necessarily so for the next. That doesn't necessarily mean the young are stupid or bad, just different. Sometimes the younger genration could even teach the older a thing or two, if only they were willing to listen. Remember two hundred years ago it was "common sense" that we should trade Africans as slaves, "common sense" that women shouldn't be allowed to vote, "common sense" that a man should be allowed to beat his wife. Every generation has its share of dumb people, spendthrifts, people who don't know what's good for them. And everybody makes mistakes- particularly when they're young. Its interesting that people often site teenage pregnancy as a sign of society's decline. But what's interesting is that go back a hundred years or so and 17 year old girls still got pregnant. Sometimes because they were married off to a much older man to bring extra money into the family (a practice which is thankfully now no longer in the West at least), and the idea that she might do so by going to university and getting a job herself was seen as a complete lack of "common sense". Or a girl might be raped, or just make a mistake, but the baby would be snatched from her, given to another family, and she ostracised by her family with no route available to her other than prostitution or a convent laundry. I think in that sense you can certainly argue that we've moved on in the way we deal with teenage pregnancy. Also the fact that contraception, sex education and pregnancy testing is now widely and confidentially available for anyone who needs it is one of the great triumphs for common sense in the 20th century. As a general rule, despite a few bleak periods, I think history has shown that things tend to get better with time, rather than worse. Its true we have a long way to go, and the present age is not perfect. But I know I'd rather be alive now than at any other point in history.

I do and I blame liberal arts universities as the reason. Where else do you get otherwise intelligent people who think the only differences between men and women are physical and cultural, that you can turn boys into functional girls and vice versa? Where else do you get people who think that "religion has caused more deaths than anything else," when it was irreligious ideologies that slaughtered 200 million people just in the 20th century? Where else do you find the idea that the country that everyone wants to immigrate into is the worst on earth? For just three examples of accepted wisdom on university faculties.

Yes-it goes hand in hand with the fact that we are thinking less and less for ourselves. Granted this is a gross generalization but these days we're spoon fed our politics and opinions-its hard to see where we begin and the machine of propaganda ends.

No. I think what you are seeing are the basic mistakes each new group of young people make (using the mode of the day) till they grow and learn to be responsible adults. There will always be a certain ratio of responsible people to irresponsible people.

I think I have to agree with Azraff and Missmezzo. I agree with Azzraff in that each generation before has made it's share of mistakes and has learned from them. But the newer generations don't seem to pay particular attention to what those mistakes were in order to learn from them without making the same ones. However I agree with Missmesso in that we live in an era where lawyers will gladly take any case and sue for any reason-like spilling obviously hot coffee in your own lap and then suing the restaurant for it. I don't think it is so much lack of common sense that the person didn't know the coffee was hot as it is this person probably thought "how much money can I get because of this". So I guess what this boils down to is a greedy and inexperienced generation causing more commotion for the media to write about than what they would write about otherwise. I bet the people we hear about have plenty of common sense. They just choose to either not use it, or use it to a negative gain.

I agree with the person who stated that things are becoming more and more just about ourselves...more egocentric and self-centered, selfish ways of society. Wanting a 'smaller' baby? Good grief...be thankful you have a child to begin with!! Common sense on a ground that people are not forming their OWN opinions is what I see. Don't believe everything that is spoon fed to you. Research it, analyze it, and FORM AN INDIVIDUALIST OPINION. Granted, it MAY be the case that it is the popular opinion, but just following it JUST because it's what the populace is agreeing with is just silly...God forbid we stand out in our opinion! That's the beauty in freedom of speech.

I think that as people are getting more and more exposed to modern technology at earlier ages, they rely more and more upon tthem and therefore do less thinking themselves (e.g. calculators and mental arithmetic). At the same time as we lose basic mental skills we also lose a bit of common sense. My other theory is that common sense has never changed in amount at all, but as the years go on it gets shared between more and more people.

No. I don't believe it is. Its just that that has become the perception because the media goes into any situation and ignores the 90% that are dealing with it and broadcast the 10% that are doing stupid things. 90% of the people deal with life succesfully but you will not see them on the evening news.

It would explain a lot, but I think it could become an excuse. Common sense is available to all, but it comes through listening and applying truth and making the right choices. The word for that is wisdom and it is in bountiful supply to all who will avail themselves of it.

Yes absolutely, at least in the U.S. We have so many laws and regulations now that protect the individual from his own stupidity that natural selection doesn't get to weed them out anymore. If rear car doors opened from the inside, rear windows rolled down all the way, seat belts were optional, helmets were optional, three wheelers weren't banned, etc, etc, etc, we would see alot of idiots getting eliminated before they got a chance to breed more idiots.