When did common sense stop being common?

  There are things in life that, at first glance, should be simple, intuitive, or even logical.
But we live in a world where it’s necessary to state - in black and white - that “the cream is not for oral use” or “please keep the garage door closed.”
And the most ironic part? Even with the warnings, someone will always ignore them. The real question is: when did good sense stop being… common sense?
  These days, obvious instructions have become part of the urban landscape.
No one even blinks at a beauty product that says “for external use only,” as if eating moisturiser were somehow a real possibility.
But if that sentence is there, it’s because someone, somewhere, tried it.
Or worse - maybe they even sued the company for not warning them.
  This phenomenon isn’t limited to products. In buildings across the country, we find improvised signs - almost always on an A4 sheet pinned to a corkboard - that read “please keep the door closed,” “avoid noise after 10pm,”
or “do not block the garage”. They’re messages of exhaustion. They weren’t there at the beginning. They were written by someone who, after too many frustrating incidents, gave up on silent coexistence and felt forced to turn the obvious into a reminder.
  In my own building, these signs have become almost decorative - and unfortunately, necessary. It’s common to see bits of plastic, cupcake wrappers or all sorts of rubbish scattered around the common areas, as if the floor were a bin. And as if that weren’t enough, the elevator mirror often looks like it’s been subjected to behaviour that defies any rational explanation: dirty fingerprints, spit, or even signs that someone decided to lick or sneeze on the glass.
No one wants to believe they live in a place like that, but the truth is, when people lack self-control or basic respect, the signs - no matter how obvious - become sad reminders of the absence of civility.
  And that’s when we ask ourselves: are we living in an age where people don’t even know the basics? Or do they just not care? Maybe the problem isn’t always bad intentions, but carelessness, selfishness, or the simple idea that “someone else will deal with it.”
  There’s also a kind of tragic humour in all of this. The sense that we constantly need to be treated like children in order to follow basic rules.
That empathy and respect are no longer enough - someone has to spell it out for us on a handwritten sign. And even then, many still don’t follow them.
  In the end, what these signs really show is a lack of collective responsibility.
The need to state the obvious is a reflection of our inability to live together without someone telling us, step by step, what needs to be done. And maybe it’s time we each asked ourselves: how many signs would be unnecessary if everyone just did the bare minimum?