What causes directionality?

In movies and TV shows, we often see heroines who have poor directions and don’t even know how to get there on a simple route. They can only find their specific location with the help of the hero. Being directionally challenged seems to be a cute term, reflecting the innocence and cuteness of girls. However, being directionally challenged is actually a disease. If one cannot correctly distinguish directions, one will lose the skills to survive. So, what is the reason for being directionally challenged?

For most animals, determining direction and finding paths is not a difficult task. Take the golden hamster as an example. Even if it is blindfolded and taken to a place far away from its nest, it can still find the way home and "run" home in a straight line. Geese, toads and spiders have also demonstrated similar abilities.

However, humans' path-finding abilities are far inferior to those of these animals. In one test, researchers had subjects blindfolded and walk from a starting point to an end point and then back to the starting point. However, none of the subjects performed satisfactorily; they either walked the distance or did not. It seems that modern people are inherently poor at guiding.

Most early people lived a nomadic life and had no fixed place to live. The residential area is relatively empty, and the surrounding world is almost unchanging. It is either desert or snowfield. There are no roads at all, so how can there be any buildings? Later, the world was divided into countries, cities, regions, and streets. There were roads, buildings, and road signs. In order to find the way home, people drew maps; in order to find their own location, people invented the Global Positioning System (GPS). Nowadays, people use various tools to guide themselves. However, the trouble is that unlike animals' ability to accurately calculate direction and distance, using markings in the surrounding environment or various tools to guide directions is prone to errors and can lead to complete loss of direction.

Humans' guiding abilities are very different from those of animals. Yet, even though we often get lost, we are still pretty good at finding our way around in some ways. We may walk out of a store and forget the way home, but we can surf the Internet; we may get lost in the jungle, but we can land on the moon. Therefore, we do not need to regret the loss of precise navigation ability, but should cherish the rich living space we have gained. In order to survive, humans, like other animals, are constantly exercising their abilities. Whether we lose or gain, we reproduce under the influence of natural selection.