A teacher teaches her sixth grade history class. She asks the class how many states are in the United States. No hands raise and children’s eyes wander around the room in hopes of the answer. The teacher asks the question again, but this time she asks if anyone has any guesses. One kid guesses 53 states. Another kid guess 48 states. Finally, after several attempts and guesses, a lucky kid guesses 50 states.

This incident is actually more frequent than people think. A lot of people are losing and not knowing what’s considered to be common knowledge. Although common knowledge is defined as “something known by most people,” what is generally considered common knowledge?

“I think that common knowledge is anything that is used on an everyday basis without consciously having to remember it. For example, most people know that a quarter is 25 cents, and you don’t have to remember that,” junior Robin Kaufman said.

According to an article from Yale, “The common way to talk about common knowledge is to say that it is knowledge that most educated people know or can find out easily in an encyclopedia or dictionary.”

Throughout today’s current generations, are we losing what we once considered common knowledge? As has been proven before by scientists, the Earth is round; although this is proven, several people believe it to be flat. To some people, this could just be different opinions and views on our planet. However, when it comes down to facts including how many days are in a week, people tend to just reply on searching the web for answers.

“Yes, I believe people are losing common knowledge because of our internet. They believe anything they need to know can be looked up on the internet. The internet doesn’t always give correct information and some people don’t even know how many states are in the United States. They have to look it up,” freshman Alexis Surrenda said.

In fact, the phrase “how many states are in the United States” and the phrase “is the earth flat” has been searched numerous times according to Google statistics.

From this, are people relying too much on the internet and technology instead of learning and retaining information?

“I think that parents not setting rules with technology could affect how much they’re in need of technology. I think that children generally get distracted easily and having people set them up on track that helps them get into routines and good habits can help them not rely so much on the internet because it takes one power-outage or a flat tire with bad service to make you realize how little you really know,” sophomore Ella Walden said.

Whether it’s because of the internet or people just not retaining this knowledge, common knowledge is becoming less common. What used to be easy, retainable knowledge has become difficult to grasp. Will what we used to consider common knowledge just adapt overtime to our current society, or will we continue to have to reach for it?