Can You Give Yourself a Better Sense of Direction?

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Some of us can’t navigate anywhere without a GPS - but are we doomed to a life of directional bewilderment? Or is there hope for us yet?
Hosted by: Brit Garner
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[@gardenhead92]

Psh. I can easily drive for *hours* without a GPS. I call it "being lost"

[@daniellemurphy9755]

I have a friend who calls it "exploring" 🙄

[@ligh7foo7]

@@daniellemurphy9755 yeh what is this lost business, I call it exploring too. you are going to an area you have not been before and if you can turn around and drive in the other direction and get back to a place you know then you are not lost, well technically you are lost while in the unknown zone but how else are you going to learn that knew suburb. You would truly be lost if you turned the car off, but then you could walk out.

[@visitishigaki]

I call it "getting off the beaten track" ^_^

[@MelvaCross]

I have the navigational abilities of a potato. And my memory has become abysmal. Nice to see that those things have the same source.

[@brokenacoustic]

Same, I can get lost in a small building...coming out of a bathroom and realizing I have no idea how I got there lol

[@airmatressmandingoconqured6530]

Me too, and this video was useless as hell

[@saintsataniko2116]

My whole life when I go anywhere unfamiliar I can get lost just walking out of my hotel room. It has always been a huge Achilles Heel that made me especially nervous in the pre-Waze days.

[@thejuice027]

Damn it, I thought you were at least going to tell me how to face north on a cloudy night.

[@chinchenping]

my sens of direction is so bad, when sitting on my couch, in my own house, i have trouble pointing the direction of my bedroom on the second floor. ... i seriously think i have some kind of pathology.

[@kaylacote5376]

I’m the same. There’s a recently studied condition called Topographical Agnosia or Developmental Topographic Disorientation. May be worth reading about.

[@joolzzenda]

I'm currently writing my PhD thesis about orientation with mobile maps, thanks for pointing me in the direction of a couple of new papers to look over :) I guess I need to fit SciShow into my acknowledgements now!

[@nicolaiveliki1409]

Mobile maps are like training wheels. They're really practical if you're not familiar with the terrain. But I prefer driving/walking/riding my bike without because I can direct my attention to the interesting things I would otherwise miss

[@alveolate]

i don't think "training wheels" are a good analogy at all. people with a good sense of direction can easily tell if the map app is lagging or if the GPS is being wonky. it's simply a tool, like a compass. a person with a poor sense of direction could just as easily get disoriented if the GPS is displaced or if the phone lags. also, map apps can be used without the "follow route" function. using a map that way is not very different from using an old school map, especially if you wanna go for the challenge and turn off your location. the biggest requirement here is actually knowing _how to read a map_ in the first place. if you're bad at reading maps to begin with, none of these arguments would apply.

[@nicolaiveliki1409]

@@alveolate I have a very good navigation system in my car. That's a mobile map, too... I learned reading maps from my dad, who learned it in the army. Mobile maps with GPS are only a matter of convenience for me. They are my training wheels while I get accoustomed to unknown territory. I didn't mean to suggest they were training wheels for learning the skill 'sense of direction'. They are a replacement for most people's sense of direction. Like a calculator is a replacement for people who can't handle numbers

[@Mac2095]

I disagree! Mobile maps are a tool. Like any map, they help to orient you. If you keep an eye on landmarks on your way to and from a location, checking your phone map can help build your sense of direction for where those landmarks lie in relation to each other, helping to build a better sense of direction for next time you need a landmark to look to. Basically a modern day compass and map combined together!

[@KingOfTheBeyond23]

I don't know fam, I get lost real easy.

[@PAND3MONIUM]

Same here bruh, quite embassing

[@ronnydsouza2706]

Me too 😅

[@thekifantasy]

It's tough out here😭😂

[@tianamatson]

My dad is an urban planner and loves maps. He would pull out maps of our city and state and we would pour over them for hours just for fun. It's definitely made me a WAY better navigator. I can usually walk into a building and still know which direction is north. And I don't like following GPS. I'll study the map on my phone before I start driving but I have a much easier time navigating if I already have the route in my head.

[@rainynight02]

I was told a while back that people who can read have worse memories than those who can't, because those who can't need to remember specific things more, so they know where they are/going. Where as those who bc an read just use signs. Using technology probably does something similar with direction. The less we use that part of our brains, well, "use it or lose it" comes into effect.

[@chrysalizubeth88]

My dad started my brother and I early on practicing navigation. When we went on long trips, he’d have us follow along on a map. Then when we were around twelve, he would start quizzing us on how to get to all of our common destinations (grocery store, doctors, mall, etc). Now when I go somewhere new, I pull up the map app and plan my route, but I don’t use the GPS while I’m driving.

[@christelheadington1136]

I have a 12 year old road atlas,that I use for trips to unfamiliar addresses,Plan ahead with little post it stickers on the pages.

[@BodyImageFitnessLLC]

I get lost trying to leave a parking lot. Always been that way. GPS on a smart phone has been the best thing to ever happen to me. Now I can drive unfamiliar routes without getting all turned around and anxious and lost , or trying to use paper maps.

[@thetommantom]

I enjoy navigating without navigation. I like to find new ways just to avoid traffic. Red light? New street. Traffic? New street. Then I try to remember street names then I navigate my route afterward on a map to see what I did or what can I can differently next time.

[@sohopedeco]

I don't know... I think I get to learn new paths to different place a lot better with gps. If I didn't have it, I would just stick to the main avenues and hope there's not so much traffic ahead.

[@GalaxyOneFilms]

How I learned damn near all the in's and out's of my local area as well as a significant portion of the surrounding area was my former girlfriend and I would just drive around late at night. Everywhere. Now this assumes you have a car to drive, are comfortable being out late at night, and can afford to waste plenty of gas. But that's what we would do, just drive. Pick a direction and head out into the great yander. It''s definitely easier to do this late at night because there's usually nobody else on the road, and most traffic lights switch to turning green on sensors instead of their regular timed cycles. So if you time it just right, you can come up to a red light intersection and possibly not have to come to a full stop. Pay attention to where you're going, remember street names (remembering cardinal directions isn't nearly as important as you would think), and try to learn which streets intersect with each other. So many times I would be driving down a road not knowing exactly where I was and then coming to an intersection I'd gone through over a thousand times. Very often I got this "oh, I didn't know this street crossed this(other) street". And I just built my mental map that way. And the best part is, if you do get just utterly and completely lost, like maybe you zoned out for a second and then tried to retrace your steps by turning around and maybe it's a foggy night and no matter what you do you keep ending up on a street that comes to a dead end, then turn around again and come to ANOTHER dead end (may or may not be a true story), just whip out your handy little device that grants you access to all the accumulated knowledge of the human race and use it to navigate yourself back to where you want to go. Don't ever be so proud that you don't use an app to help you if you really do get lost. Happened to me many times. Oh and don't think you can drive like a maniac because there's no one else on the road. You become such an easy target for any law enforcement officer because there's NO ONE ELSE on the road. So I hope this can help. Sorry for the longpost.

[@thetommantom]

@@GalaxyOneFilms same same same. Late nights main roads are faster because no traffic plus that light thing. What's real cool is when lights turn green without even slowing down.

[@periteu]

@@GalaxyOneFilms Interesting. I think i'm gonna do this when i have my own car.

[@Master_Therion]

I recently tried to download a navigation app but couldn't. The internet traffic was horrible!

[@jerry3790]

I got lost getting to this video.

[@jackielinde7568]

Hey, I'm pretty good about navigating without GPS. Part of it has to do with one of my college jobs in the early 90's: Sandwich delivery. Also, I used to play a lot of D&D in the 80's, and drew quite a few maps for my campaigns back then. And, I've played a lot of RPG games that required remembering locations in 2D and 3D space. Then again, I also check maps before I go somewhere unfamiliar, and I live in a metropolitan area that is laid out in a grid, where the North-South streets have mostly numeric names, and the East-West streets are named.

[@Probly_a_sweet_potato]

I have an issue called Developmental Topographical Disorientation. It took a long time to be diagnosed with that, as well as a few other symptoms of Dyspraxia. I literally get lost in my own house, and need a gps to navigate my own town, where I was born and lived here for 20 years. It’s not that I’m bad at it, it’s that I literally can’t learn, like at all. Direction and how my current position relates to another location just does not compute. The limit of my immediate direction sense is which ever room I am in. I can see there is a door and a hallway beyond that, but where the hall leads? I dunno. Contextually I can say there will be a kitchen, bathroom, living room, ect... attached to that hallway, but I cannot say which order they are in or how that relates to the current position in my house. This did not come about due to an injury, or any lack of brain development. Direction and special relativity simply do not compute in my brain.

[@JackSparrow-tn6ic]

What if you have a map, does it help or can you not translate it to reality?

[@hotdrippyglass]

I have a really good sense of direction and can find my back onto my path even if I get forced off the route by, say, unexpected road construction without having to go back to the point where I got turned off. What I have had trouble with is judging distances and my GPS has helped learn what 5 miles looks like as well as 40 miles. Before that I was limited to "one mile, Many miles, a left at the rusted junk yard and a right at Burger King".

[@Jebbtube]

I can find my way through my hometown blindfolded, but take me out of there, and I'm completely hopeless.

[@kn7892]

How did you know i suck at directions? :O

[@bersl2]

I try to plan out my route beforehand. Then, unless I'm in a rush, I leave the navigation aid alone for a while I try to reason about where I am and where I'm going. Finally, if that doesn't get me to where I need to go, when I find out where I am, that lets me compare to where I thought I was and update my understanding of the route. Same thing with my mental picture of cardinal directions, which generally keeps me going in the right direction when correct.

[@cmdr1911]

Ill use the navigation for places like my main office I have been a thousand times just for the traffic and making sure there are no accidents. After that I just reroute myself

[@gravijta936]

I've never used a GPS for navigation, but would be lost without my chickens!

[@thetommantom]

I still make wrong turns, go the wrong way, make u-turns, and run into dead ends. Based on landmarks I try to remember not to go specific ways.

[@biko9824]

It’s really easy. Play Minecraft for a few hours...

[@WolfieKr]

I was expecting something like: Don't leave your house. xD

[@kn7892]

@LagiNaLangAko23 every goddamn time!

[@nopenope6750]

@@WolfieKr Lp

[@lampekartoffel]

I always use my/a GPS the first time I go somewhere. If it's a long or complicated route then I use it a few more times, but for the most part, I can turn the sound off after driving or walking the route 2 times and after not looking at it for help a few times I no longer use the GPS. Unless it's a very trafficked area so I have to focus too much on other cars to make a good mental map

[@360.Tapestry]

you convinced me with "very trafficked"

[@LMacNeill]

3:56 -- oooh!! Impressive segue. :-)

[@LMacNeill]

@@KeimoKissa You expect English to make sense? HAHAHAHAH! ;-)

[@stevieinselby]

Yup, the excuses to plug advertising partners are getting worse and worse. It's bad enough that I support them on Patreon *and* let the adverts play through to give them maximum revenue, without a quarter of each video being paid promotion as well.

[@cmdr1911]

It amazes me when people are bad with directions. I have oil and gas sites in SE and did over head utility work in PA and Ohio. Often there was little to no cell service which meant I often had no clue where I was but usually abke to navigate back to major roads or routes I knew. 1 trip to a place and I can usually get back with no issue. I have managed to get a friend on mine lost in a small town (12k people) that we both lived in for 20+ years. Just strange how differently people handle navigating.

[@saraashkir5793]

3 thoughts: 1) I hate following GPS because I cant tell when it wants me to turn (turn right in 500 feet, well is that this light or the next? The turns are close). And also I hate the voice interrupting me every couple of minutes to be like “turn right in 3 miles” like alright shush Im trying to listen to music (but I need the voice to remind me to turn). So if a new place isnt too complicated, I’ll write down the road names and exit numbers on a piece of paper and which way I need to go, then use the paper. This lets me not get annoyed or miss turns, and I learn road names and memorize directions a lot quicker. 2) I’m Muslim, so we have to pray 5 times a day towards Mecca. Since starting university, I’ve had to pray in different location wherever I find a private place, so I need to know the direction to pray. My phone has a compass, but sometimes its wrong and its always annoying to have to sit there and recalibrate like 3 times to make sure its showing the right direction. I have a big lake near where I live and go to school, so I usually know which way that is, and IK that it’s East on a map. This has helped me get pretty good at cardinal directions to know which way Mecca is. 3) In some Northern European languages, they don’t use left or right, they use cardinal directions. So rather than saying “look at that bird on your left” they’ll say “look at that bird to the north”. This makes them realllyy good at cardinal directions because they use them constantly. So yes, it can be learned

[@hotsistersue]

Okay... but is there a way to improve our sense of direction? Because I get lost in my own driveway.

[@severdislike4222]

On Sun Basket; $72 for a box for a box of ingredients, which has half the volume filled with packaging, in a container smaller than a standard grocery store paper bag is awful. Simply put they're fleecing people for the "organic" label, which is a joke / borderline irrelevant in the USA as there are no set guidelines for it. $30 at somewhere like Sprouts or a Kroger is by far a more sane alternative.

[@saraashkir5793]

Its for lazy/busy people who dont wanna find their own recipes and figure out the ingrdients

[@stylejames]

I was same but something worked for me! I was so organized person before .. keeping everything in order , accounts , good in remembering each tiny details of anything. But wasn’t able to exit from a building I entered. Then I become so unorganized person 😅 , I mean keeping nothin in head , not remembering anything , means stopped the excessive use of brain (overthinking) . Started living in Present (without worrying of any other tasks or thoughts ) whatever comes in head just focus on that and enjoy that. So less brain power used, but feel of living in the moment and enjoying increased. Then I noticed wherever I go , without any effort brain gives me location where I am and makes mental map from where I started my journey. (I do not make any effort to keep remembering but it works automatically)

[@safir2241]

Do a video on why music is good for your brain My mom told me juggling is good too

[@makaylahall2664]

I can't even walk to school and it's 10 minutes away from my house 😭

[@yumtaco7376]

It’s uncomfortable to drive while depending on a map and dangerous for you and the people around you, that’s why i am planning on starting to train my bran on memorizing directions better without Google maps

[@olafgordon8552]

When you get lost and you are too embarassed to admit it, just call it "Exploring"

[@ypc8902]

This is the best. I like how she sneak in at the end about Sun Basket. That would really improve my directional sense. Thank you.

[@CharlesTheClumsy]

I was born with a very good sense of direction.

[@CarlosSantana-we6ts]

Shouldn’t you be commenting on the video not bragging about your directions skills. Besides with a name like Charlie clumsy who believes you have good spatial awareness.

[@ligh7foo7]

Between 1999 and 2008, I just went off faith. I don't know how I knew I just knew and didn't have to explain it to anyone because you know, pizzas don't talk. When I started driving taxis people asked how I knew where I was going and some of them were confused or concerned that we were going to get lost. Before I knew the arterial method, something inside me would tell me the general direction to go, then as I got closer to the destination I was given a new bit of information, it was like a map was unfolding in my head. If you asked me to give you directions to the destination I would say I don't know, I could only direct them generally but as the journey progressed it is like someone unfolded the map and I had new information and it always worked. I just trusted that I knew where to go even if I couldn't explain it.

[@christelheadington1136]

For some reason I'm better when there is a large body of water nearby(not even in sight).Maybe because I spent the majority of my life near Lake Erie,and another portion near the Ohio River.> When you jumped to hunting food, I thought, well I can roll down the window and sniff out a lot of restaurants.

[@saraashkir5793]

ME TOO!! I live near Lake Michigan and know my cardinal direction because I can tell where it is even when I cant see it

[@aellalee4767]

I use the GPS to find new places, but once I've walked somewhere twice I usually have it memorized. I check the maps to see if they're a good route or not first. I've been burned and never fully trust the GPS.

[@lazyperfectionist1]

This is one reason I keep my reliance on GPS to a minimum.

[@kodokuna]

cell phone maps and many maps found in parks don't have distance bars, making it more difficult to gauge distance.

[@Radicus]

Are the people with better navigation skills also more interested in exploring world? I have very good navigation skills and I love to explore game worlds without maps. My friend, who gets lost after one turn does not like to explore game worlds and prefers to stick around well known places. Just a thought.

[@JackSparrow-tn6ic]

I can imagine they fear getting lost and avoid unfamiliar places more.

[@thetommantom]

Sometimes it might not be faster, however it's usually easier because I'm not "turn right in 50ft" from highway fast lane.

[@wonderland1330]

I have no sense of direction . I keep asking people in the street every 2 Mins till I get to the right destination I call this using human gps 👌😂

[@AliceDeBois]

I also suggest it runs in families. My dad's side can find their way easily. I'm happy I get that from him, I travel for work and are in areas I don't know a lot.

[@OsirisMalkovich]

Alternative pitch: Install GPS directly into my brain. Why waste time learning something a machine already does better?

[@ColinJonesPonder]

When I'm driving, I argue with the GPS a lot. "Why would I want to go that way?", "That's a bad way to go!!" When I drive any distance I check out the main route I want to take before I set out, just using the GPS for actual navigation when closing in on an unfamiliar destination. I think this comes from being my father's navigator using proper maps before I was a teenager, and delivering new cars to various places around the country long before computers were capable of the task of navigation.

[@ligh7foo7]

I have driven for half of my working life and I have found it interesting how I remember where to go. in 1999 I found that if I got lost delivering a pizza and there was a strong emotional connection afterwards because I got in trouble for being late and whenever this happened I found these were the strongest navigational memories, usually embarrassment, shame or some other emotion but it meant I never was late to deliver in that street again. I was able to strategically use that later on as a once off every now and then, as no pizza deliverer has a 100% record. In 2008 I started work as a taxi driver, I was taught that most cities have arterial streets, then sub arterial and then capillaries or trunk, branches, twigs. The method was to learn the major roads first, the one that criss cross the city and do not go into the suburbs but pass the suburbs until you come to a secondary major road (the sub arterial) these usually go into the heart of a suburb, then from there you find the capillaries for a specific house. In 2015 I used this method in a different town that did not have suburb distinctions and had to use the sub arterial methods to create boundaries in my head.

[@JackSparrow-tn6ic]

When I get lost, the strong emotions make it even harder for me to focus and remember directions.

[@ligh7foo7]

@@JackSparrow-tn6ic thanks for your reply, at the time, I may have been the same, I am unsure. Definitely days later us when I found it was helpful

[@yvessioui2716]

I'll try to summarize the little I learnt here with my knowledge and experience. Genetic gives you all structural functions to get your way around, like an hypocampus, neurons and glials cells... Life gives those structures something to exercize and diverse and intense practise get you better at the general function of navigating. Brain region related to the task may vary in size from genetic but also with use. Some difficulties research find on its way here is that 'navigating' has a multipurpose use like 3D representation when drawing, repairing something like a tooth or sock or a motor, day dreaming, any high demand from somesthesy, driving any mean of transportation, playing hide and seek, understanding life basic movements as bending over a fence, figuring the still existence of an object disappearing of view, stirring a soup to avoid sticking to the bottom of a pot, wiggling a finger in the back of a sofa to get a lost item... So, any science around that subject has a lot of place to expand even in a far future.

[@FelipeKana1]

Cmon.... as a good navigator, pretty simple: MEMORY. We look at maps before and train on committing then to memory well, and train on translating the info in memory to the road on the go by going. Ffs is kinda obvious. People just need to try and do it, and maybe they'll get lost a few times first but then they will improve. There's no magic, you just need to study the path before (or road names at least). I've got more lost using shitty apps than going solo btw.

[@willythemailboy2]

There's all these helpful things like signs to help you navigate. The only time I've ever been lost in an unfamiliar city was because a street was labeled as a different street (the street changed names at that intersection and only one name was shown).

[@confusedwhale]

The thing with phone number memorization verses spacial maneuvering is that you don't need to talk to people over the phone. If you need to, you'll write down their number somewhere in case of future problems. Otherwise, that person probably isn't that important to keep in contact with. Or, you can probably figure it out some other way. It's truly not that hard to get in contact with people if you really need to. However, knowing how to get places is important. If society collapses--because if you can't access the internet to get internet maps and gps information that's probably what would be happening--the place you'd look up aren't really important anymore but getting around still would be. Knowing directions and general information in movement are important whether societies have collapsed or if you are trying to get a place you've never been. Other people can tell if a driver doesn't know where they are going on the streets and highways... Do you want to become one of them? Do you want to become one of those people that others have to drive around because they are a danger?

[@NewMessage]

This channel is doing a reasonable job of keeping me on track lately...

[@TheConquesttintin]

I can tell that the speakers on scishow are genuinely existed about science! Good work :D

[@southhill6667]

I never get lost, always have some sort of idea where I am in relation to wherever and whatever, and even what direction I'm facing. I grew up in a rather forested area so I'm guessing it has something to do with that, often playing in the forest where the only way I'd be able to find my way back was to pay attention to where I was, where I've been, etc.

[@peter4210]

Ones you loose your house in minecraft once, You became better at Navigation due to fear of loosing your house again. I haven't used navigational tools in minecraft in a while, even after coming back to is after a long few year break, and In GTA now that I think of it

[@Mandrake_root]

I think it sometimes depends on how much you depend on the GPS? Like sometimes I use it and don't even think to observe the street names I'm passing and turning onto or any landmarks. Those times the GPS doesn't increase my directional skills whatsoever since I'm just mindlessly turning when it tells me to. Other times I have it on only to make sure I don't forget a turn or to know if there's traffic. I had Google maps when I learned how to drive so idk if it's made me better or worse at driving, but I think since it takes an extra step to set it up I will usually not use it once I feel comfortable enough to get where in going. Depending on how much I'm paying attention to landmarks and road names, this can take a while or no time at all. 🤷‍♂️

[@THETRIVIALTHINGS]

"Come to the shark side" lol Those t-shirts are always so punny.

[@RickySTT]

My phone overheats when I use it for navigation. It’s just as well, because I like to have the big picture of the places I visit and a good sense of where I am and where I’m going, which I get with paper maps. I don’t get that with GPS navigation.

[@kellygreen2662]

Sorry this question doesn't match the show but I was wondering if looking through a telescope was also a time travel trip? Meaning it takes lightyears for the light from stars to reach us but does looking through a telescope shorten this time?

[@chriseliothernandez]

There is a time tested method of practicing and it's called orienteering hello.

[@a-wanderingcloud0-014]

3:56 that segway tho 😂

[@Babarudra]

Want to get better at any skill that cellphones have replaced? Stop using the cellphone.

[@ligh7foo7]

thats what I do, you can turn it back on if you need to find your way out, I just challenge myself to get in and out of the area without maps until I have memorised the area.

[@Babarudra]

and if you really want to get to know the area you live in, get a job delivering pizza. After a couple months I knew every short cut and private road around.

[@ligh7foo7]

@@Babarudra Amen I mentioned that in my other posts and replies,

[@ligh7foo7]

@@Babarudra are the perks of a pizza driver, being allowed to explore private roads.

[@Babarudra]

@@ligh7foo7 it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission! "Oh! I didn't see that sign. Sorry!"

[@lem5689]

I use gps when i travel somewhere new and i seem just fine navigating if the route isnt complicated..when im in a new area instead just following the gps i look around and pat attention to where im going and use the buildings and stores as landmarks

[@handley2645mh]

I have very little sense of direction. Which is really sad since I worked as a truck driver for a long time. I did find that I got better over time, that the Lord. The GPS cannot be totally relied upon.

[@Lunautau101]

My grandmother was “directionally challenged” and so am I 🥲 if you tell me where to go and force me to figure it out I will get so anxious. If I veer off course and have to take a detour I’m desperately trying to figure out which street will put me back my original path. To this day I sometimes get surprised about close something is to other places even though I’ve already been there several times. I get lost in Minecraft CONSTANTLY 😭 and I still get East and West confused

[@overtsaturn]

People who are bad at navigating usually don't even understand traditional maps

[@JackSparrow-tn6ic]

I'm a geologist and have a very good understanding of normal maps. Not just 2D, also 3D and even 4D (maps that change over time) are easy for me because my profession requires it every day. Yet, when I'm in a new city, I'd always get lost or take inefficient routes. Hand me a map and I'll do fine though. Without a map I feel like a 5 year old, although it has gotten better a little over the last years because I try to use gps as little as possible.

[@overtsaturn]

​@@JackSparrow-tn6ic No one can just enter a new city without ever looking at a map and be fine, that's impossible. Navigion, in my opinion, is all about creating a map of a new place in your head based on the surrounding parts of the city that you have already been to, or just remembering the map that you have studied previously. It's really just a memory and attention issue.

[@JackSparrow-tn6ic]

@@overtsaturn Yeah that's true but some people only need to walk a way once and will know it, I'll have to walk many times and also focus hard.

[@ChungRts]

I’m terrible at getting by without google maps. I might do an experiment by practicing not getting lost.

[@Itania333]

I get lost in my own street

[@kaylacote5376]

Me too!

[@tvdan1043]

But who moved my cheese? My sister’s family lives three states away and I drive there to visit 2-3 times a year. I could drive it blindfolded if it weren’t for those pesky other drivers. But I still use my GPS for its ETA calculation. Because I know it *should* take six hours, but, you know, those pesky other drivers!

[@WolfieKr]

I don't understand people who have no sense of direction ... Yes I use GPS for long trips as I don't know/memorize places I don't need to. But after the first visit I can easily navigate to all places, but taking "shortcuts" is something I don't really do, even if I know that if I take the next turn left should take me to were I want to go I rather take the longer road

[@Viv8ldi]

Is there a way to train to memorize routes better? Or a way for being able to understand a road descripten better? When someone describes the way to me, he or she has to mark out things like big trees or shops so I can find some orientation, if they only use "left right left right" I cant memorize it at all

[@ligh7foo7]

By the way which way is North? Is that something instinctual in people or is it a skill they have learned.

[@peridotthebeardie5641]

Pokémon joke: Leon needs to watch this video.

[@lem5689]

Cause i was able to find myself going one way with the gps..amd them coming back the same way without using it....well..granted the city is usually in a grid shape which makes it easier to know the path and map out differnt path but it seems to work...also taking a highway part i memorized it where it felt familar at after a few time

[@EVEspinosa79]

I'm definitely not a rat. As soon as I get inside a building, I can no longer tell where the North is.

[@TheMangyAngel]

Me too, girl. Me too.

[@talkindurinthemovie]

I use to get so lost b4 gps

[@baclamom]

I get lost in a building.

[@MyPisceanNature]

I was about to comment on how my job made me better with directions, and then she mentioned the study with taxi drivers, which is my job lol.

[@NNic.]

Niiice lead-in to the sponsored ad at the end! :D

[@byrellebrass7387]

I have no idea whats going on at all times whether im driving or not

[@RickySTT]

How does Sun Basket define “paleo”?

[@route2070]

How I navigate through a city. Start walking in a direction for a couple of minutes. Then turn around and walk the other direction, cause I started going the wrong way.

[@ZuchinniOne]

Great Video ... but can you put the references in the video so it's easy to figure out which links they are referring to? Or maybe just time-code the links to the sources so we know when they are referenced in the videos?

[@bassam_salim]

How to know that I'm good at navigating or not? When I don't know where the place I'm going to, I really need to ask about it or use google maps, else I can go there without any problem. And yeah I can find my home no matter where you put me, I think most people are like that, aren't they?

[@javierhumbertowolnitzkywen4918]

They should do the same test on Uber drivers... I'd bet on lower than normal Hypocampus size

[@stevieinselby]

Is it just me, or did the video completely fail to answer the question? There are several studies that give correlation, yes, but no indication of which way the causation runs. I'm one of the people who pretty much never uses sat-nav, and pretty much never gets lost. It would be nice to know whether there's any point in pushing my friends who rely completely on sat-nav to try to learn to live without it, or if it is just impossible for them to get appreciably better.

[@carlospesqueraalonso4988]

Paleo!!!! That isn't Scishow!

[@RangerRuby]

I don't think you really know if you are good at navigating until you start driving.

[@dutchik5107]

Ever walked through an unfamiliar city? Rode your bike around a place you don't know well? You have to have a better sense of direction for that. Because when driving long distances you just look at the signs. And once inside a town it's the same as on bike

[@thereisa]

I knew I had a great sense of direction as young as 5 years old because I paid attention to where we were going while my mom drove me around places. I was able to tell where we were based on landmarks (Safeway, McDonald's, this park, that school, that weird looking tree, a huge billboard, a tall/distinct building, etc). When I learned to ride a bike, I started taking different roads to get to the park, library, grocery store, school, and home. I'd intentionally take different turns to see where they took me. I knew if I went in a certain direction (North East South or West) I'd be "lost" for 10-20 minutes before I found something familiar and then knew where I was. From there, I knew that this road took me here... and then I was able to draw a mental map of what my entire 20+ blocks looked like around my house. This was before Google Maps existed. Navigation this way was learned through lots of exploring and my knowledge of my local area became wider the farther out I explored. I have a sibling who has terrible sense of direction and I asked her how that was possible. It turns out that she never paid attention to where we were driving. She was often the day-dreamer. When we got in the car, she may have looked at the window but she didn't pay attention to anything around us. To her, driving was purely destination related... to get to point B. But for me, I paid attention to the journey to get there, that's how I developed my sense of direction... And I'd always had some sense of it because I paid attention.

[@ligh7foo7]

what is a cellphone?

[@MrPHBOY]

My advice is to take EVERYTHING as your landmarks.

[@DrymouthCWW]

Love that tshirt with the shark. Where can i get one?

[@hieronymusnervig8712]

Orientation is like a movie. As long as I look at it it's easy. But when I don't pay attention for a few seconds I missed the most important plot point and go huuuuh? on every major point thereafter.

[@slagondrayer447]

I know where everything is, but not how to get there. I blame anxiety.

[@suhaadil4344]

Is anybody else watching this bc they want to improve there direction skills and not get lost ?🌚🕶️🤏

[@aaronsmith5864]

Interesting I'm pretty good at navigating, I usually just look at the map before I go somewhere then just go and also have pretty good long term memory, short term not so much but I got a 5 on my ap us history class in hs. But I was a boy scout and I just really like history. When I die someone measure my hippocampus. Then forward me the results.

[@RamirArcega24]

One word : Neuroplasticity

[@dqan7372]

I need directions just to get out of the dentist's office.

[@CariettaW]

I use gps navigation to learn routes but then memorise them after a few drives, and then just go by memory. Also, leave the chicken carcass alone. :\