Left or Right handed ?

[ricktas]

With my discussion on left handed gaming mouse becoming available next year and the members who are left handed but use their right hand for a mouse, I wondered if a poll would be interesting.

You can pick more than one to vote on, to give us an overall view

[Bennymiata]

I wish they would design SLR's for left handers so your nose won't leave huge smudge marks all over the screen!

My first SLR, an Exacta, was designed for left handed people, and it was a joy to use as I could keep my right eye open and get a general view while using my left eye to look through the viewfinder.

[ving]

i am a lefty. I doubt i could retrain myself to use a left-handed mouse tho. :rolleyes:

[etherial]

30 voters so far and it seems it is possible that 2 people aren't either right or left handed or don't have hands and another 2 that don't use a mouse? :p

In all seriousness, I sometimes wonder about this. For those lefties out there, don't you just get used to being a leftie and using stuff as it has always been, or how it was when you learnt it. Like driving a car, the gear stick is always on the left (here anyway!) or using a normal keyboard that always has the number pad on the right. Don't you just get used to it?

[I @ M]

30 voters so far and it seems it is possible that 2 people aren't either right or left handed or don't have hands and another 2 that don't use a mouse?

Must be the 2 Mac users on the forum. :aaa:

[ricktas]

30 voters so far and it seems it is possible that 2 people aren't either right or left handed or don't have hands and another 2 that don't use a mouse? :p

In all seriousness, I sometimes wonder about this. For those lefties out there, don't you just get used to being a leftie and using stuff as it has always been, or how it was when you learnt it. Like driving a car, the gear stick is always on the left (here anyway!) or using a normal keyboard that always has the number pad on the right. Don't you just get used to it?

It depends, I can use a mouse with both hands, keyboards do not worry me, but I play cricket, tennis, golf with my left, left foot kicker. There is zero way I can write with my right hand..it looks like the scribble of a two year old.

I prefer to use my left hand for a mouse, but can use my right just as proficiently. I cannot use my wacom tablet pen in my right hand..has to be my left.

[Bennymiata]

I'm a lefty, but have always used my mouse with my right hand, mainly so I can take notes with my left hand.
I can play cricket and golf either way but usually right handed, but used to kick balls with my left foot, although I can kick right footed, but not as well with my right foot.
I used to play guitar right handed, but that was because my first teacher pointed out that finding left handed guitars is not always easy so it was easier to learn to play right handed from the beginning.

When I'm in China, I get a lot of funny stares when I'm eating in restaraunts as I use the chopsticks in my left hand, which is a big no-no over there.

I prefer changing gears with my left hand, although I've driven a number of LHD cars and can change gears with my right hand without much thought, although the first time I drove a manual in Europe, I was frightened that I might open the door when changing gears. :D

[etherial]

But I bet driving with the gear stick in the other hand or using a dSLR that was mirrored left to right would be weird?

[jim]

For those lefties out there, don't you just get used to being a leftie and using stuff as it has always been, or how it was when you learnt it. Like driving a car, the gear stick is always on the left (here anyway!) or using a normal keyboard that always has the number pad on the right. Don't you just get used to it?

Mostly you do, but some things are more challenging than others. Me, I tend to have trouble with scissors (because they're moulded to fit the fingers of your right hand, and cut painfully into your flesh when used left-handed), screwdrivers (because they require a combination of power and dexterity that I can't quite manage with either hand, and cameras (because I can't help inadvertently changing the focus point with my nose).

But that's all I can think of. Mostly it's a non-issue.

[LJG]

I am a lefty as well, but use a mouse with my right hand. I can also write with my right hand if necessary and do many things with my right hand. This is because when I went to school way back in the middle of the last century you got whacked with a cane or ruler for sticking a pencil in your left paw! It was like a game of cat and mouse with the teacher, as soon as his back was turned or not looking I'd quickly switch the pencil back to my left hand :shh:

[ricktas]

What is interesting, to me, is that out of 49 voters so far, 15 are left handed. But it is generally accepted that only about 10% of the world population is left handed. So left handers might be more inclined to be photographers as our percentages here are sitting at about 30% of voters.

[I @ M]

What is interesting, to me, is that out of 49 voters so far, 15 are left handed. But it is generally accepted that only about 10% of the world population is left handed. So left handers might be more inclined to be photographers as our percentages here are sitting at about 30% of voters.

Or just maybe 10 right handed voters tried to use the mouse with their left hand out of sheer curiosity as to the difficulty of it all and clicked the wrong box by mistake. ;)

[Wayne63]

I am a lefty as well, I play all sports right handed except for snooker & darts, write Left handed, use a knife and fork left handed, play guitar left handed etc but use a mouse right handed as mentioned above I can jot notes down with my left at the same time. For me it all had to do with what you had when growing up e.g. RH golf clubs, RH fishing reels and just got used to using them. Being Left handed when I went to school was also frowned upon with a cane across the back of the hand if caught but thankfully that was abolished after the first couple of years

[Art Vandelay]

Wow, all us lefties coming out of the closet ... So to speak.
I'm left handed in the majority of things with my arms, but passable with my right if needed. Weird thing is I'm right handed in the lower body, ie ball sports, surfing stance etc.
People think its weird when playing racquet sports like tennis or squash. I don't play back hand shots I just flick the racquet to the other hand play a regular shot.

[William]

Never thought about that Art, I'm the same, I stand on a surfboard as a natural foot, But I used to be a Goofy foot till I realised it's all righthand waves around here :), I also remember the days we got in trouble for writing L/Handed at school, Mind you it was a problen in the Ink Well days , Thank goodness for blotting paper :th3:

[Speedway]

I'm right handed but sometimes use the mouse left handed when I need to take notes, my handwriting is bad enough without trying to write left-handed, I can use either eye at the viewfinder as I had to last week with an injured right eye, I don't have any problems as I always close the other eye anyway.
Keith.

[Bennymiata]

What is interesting, to me, is that out of 49 voters so far, 15 are left handed. But it is generally accepted that only about 10% of the world population is left handed. So left handers might be more inclined to be photographers as our percentages here are sitting at about 30% of voters.

I think it's actually closer to 20% of the population that are left handed.

Left handed people are clearer thinkers and more artistic than right handed people, hence more of us are into photography.
That's my excuse anyway.

[BigBear]

I consider myself right handed but left handed at cricket and golf.

William – if I stand on a surfboard with the right foot forward am I a natural foot or a Goofey foot?

[bushbikie]

I wish they would design SLR's for left handers so your nose won't leave huge smudge marks all over the screen!

I'm a right-hander and my nose still leaves huge smudge marks on the screen!! Hmmmm......don't like the way this reply is going.....[GASP!].... that must mean I've got a huge schnozz!:Doh:

[Losos]

Being left handed is the final stage of evolution. Some of us have made it.

[ScottM]

I'm like quite a few have implied: things I do single handed I do left handed (mostly) but things I do involving two hands I do right handed, but I'm a bit mixed.
For example:

mouse: right handed
squash: left handed
writing: left handed
(cricket) bowling: left handed
(cricket) batting: right handed
golf: right handed, needing both hands
eating (spoon or fork exclusively): left handed
eating (knife and fork): right handed
eating (fork/knife/spoon) confused, mixed and difficult more than any other activity, with the split betw left and right
surfing: if I did, right foot forward, ie probably left handed


There's a surprising mix here just seeing the variety. It'd be interesting, but not accurare with a relatively small sample size, seeing what genre and skill matches up between the combinations.

[dacar]

What is interesting, to me, is that out of 49 voters so far, 15 are left handed. But it is generally accepted that only about 10% of the world population is left handed. So left handers might be more inclined to be photographers as our percentages here are sitting at about 30% of voters.
... or that lefties often have a right to complain and will do so, while righties don't care enough to comment.

[ScottM]

... or that lefties often have a right to complain and will do so, while righties don't care enough to comment.

LOL. Lefties are always right. The left rational brain finds reasons, while the right creatively thinks it's right always :P

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day Rick

My mouse-computing days started back in the late 70s - early 80s, and I soon found that the so-called ergonomic mouse gave me unwanted pains in the right wrist > so I tried left-handed mouse operation and have never looked back

In the 15 or so years I was running adult-ed computing classes, I always put the right-hand > left-mouse option to students. About 1/3 of all students found that, although they were right-handed the mouse in the left hand was comfortable. By default, it means that 2/3 found it uncomfortable ... but that's not the point of the exercise

Cameras-wise, I am constantly surprised that not a single camera on the marketplace is designed for left-handed use. Maybe okay for us, but I have had students with no right-hand who have had to turn the camera upside-down in their left hand to operate it - balancing it with the stump of a right arm ... !

Regards, Phil

[geoffsta]

I'm right handed for everything except woodchopping. My father was a champion woodchopper, and I had a go at junior level. He set the standing block for right handed, and I failed miserably. He st it for Left hand, and I got a trophy for winning. (I only did it so I could beat my brother. He had been practicing for weeks.)

[FallingHorse]

I am predominately right handed but do a number of things left handed. My mum was a lefty so I guess it was just the way I was shown when I was little. I shoot (rifle) left handed and look through the view finder with my left eye as I am left eye dominant so I get smudge marks on the scrren too :D

[andrewvid]

funny how we only determine if we are 'right or 'left handed by which hand we write with... i only use left to write but everything else i use my right.. i eat, text, point :p and hold my camera!

[jim]

Good point Andrew. Try this test:

http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/lh_tests.html

I'm left handed but I came up exactly 50/50.

[andrewvid]

WOW!! thanks for that link jim.. those 1-10 points actually made me realise.. i do a lot more things with my left..

[rodw]

There's a theory that handedness is like water going down the plug hole in different directions each side of the Equator.

In the southern hemisphere we should all be left handed but as civilization started in the northern hemisphere, left handed was considered sinister. Go ahead look up your dictionary for sinister!

So there you have it! If you are an Aussie and are right handed you are the exception.

We lefties rule!

[Dylan & Marianne]

I almost always uyse the mouse with my right hand though lately, sometimes while entertaining Charlotte, I've had to use my left :P

[Geoff79]

Right and right for me. Though I can see the RSI creeping in already so probably a good idea to have a go at the left hand...

[kneekon]

Glad I'm right handed, my other hobby is using fountain pens...