One of the most mind boggling factoids I’ve read in the last few years is this: “The musical birthday card that’s tossed in the trash today, holds more computer power than even existed before 1948.” Now technology is upgrading so quickly a computer bought this week will be classified an antique in 24 months, or less. The information at our fingertips is overwhelming. How did we ever make it before googling? And, we are so connected. I’m in touch with friends I haven’t seen or heard from in 30-plus years.

Is the convenience worth the trade off for the ramped up pace we’re all trying to keep up with? Is it really good to be available 24-7 no matter where you might be? Are we honestly smarter or has easy access dumbed us down? I don’t even know my own kids’ phone numbers, Driod does.

I’m sure there are some statistics we could Google to find out if the increase in access to information is in direct proportion to the decrease of common sense. It doesn’t matter how much you know, if you don’t know what to do with the information, it’s worthless. Socially are we more advanced or are we drifting backwards?

Harriet Beecher Stowe once wrote, “Common Sense is the knack of seeing things as they are and doing things as they should be done.” That seems easy enough, but elements of personal responsibility and integrity, the art of decision making, and keeping commitments clearly are fading in this era of enlightenment. We might be seeing things as they are, but it’s becoming more evident, we are lost when it comes to doing things as they should be done. Sometimes I wonder ... if we went back to simple, would our lives be quite as tangled?