Are you left or right handed?

[kearton]

The average number of people in the world is approx. 10%, but I've always suspected that this statistic is higher for people that work in IT. A few recent posts in another thread on this forum reinforced this theory. So I thought I'd create a poll to see what it is amongst Edugeekers.

 

The poll will only have 2 options (left or right). Please don't start the whole cross-dominance or ambidextrous debate - if you consider yourself to fit in those categories, just choose which one you consider to be your strongest.

e.g I write and throw with my left hand. I use racquets left handed. I bat and bowl left handed for cricket. However, I play guitar and golf right handed (but only because the equipment I had when I was learning was right handed). I use a mouse with my right hand. I consider myself to be left handed.

[FN-GM]

What if you are ambidextrous?

[sted]

it really does depend what im doing. i write with my right hand so picked that bit depending what it is im doing i even switch hands part way through

[synaesthesia]

Ambidexterous here. I don't write with my left hand, although that'd just be a matter of practice. I did start doing so when I broke my right wrist but not to the point of getting neat. All sports, games etc I switch to suit the requirements - very handy in cuesports! I also suspect this is why I stutter.

[laserblazer]

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

[rich_tech]

I am predominantly a Southpaw here, I only use a mouse/write with my right hand, everything else is left handed/footed - i.e. cutlery when eating and so on

[jdoyle]

right handed (but left wing.)

[fromtheinternet]

@kearton Looks like your hypothesis is being slowly disproven.

[Sephiroth]

Predominantly left-handed, but I tend to do single-handed things with my right hand and two-handed things left-handed.

[kearton]

What if you are ambidextrous?

Zak, did you not see my initial comments about cross-dominance or ambidexterity? i.e "if you consider yourself to fit in those categories, just choose which one you consider to be your strongest"...

 

 

Looks like your hypothesis is being slowly disproven.

Really? At present it's 4 lefties out of 28. And 14.29% > 10%, no???

[fromtheinternet]

Really? At present it's 4 lefties out of 28. And 14.29% > 10%, no???

 

Ok, I looked last at 2/23!

 

We need more 'geeks to vote. I'm quite interested in the result.

[Chris_]

Left handed here (for most things). I use a mouse with my right hand though. Probably because computers are laid out with keyboard then mouse on the right. And the first computer I used had a mouse shaped for right handed use:

 

[HarryMonkey]

I'm right handed in everything except that I eat left handed (My cousin is exactly the same).

[featured_spectre]

I am ambidextrous. Aside from writing, I am just as good using my left hand as I am with my right hand (only reason I haven't done writing with my left hand is that I have not had a need too).

[TwoZeroAlpha]

Very heavily left dominant here with the exception of using a mouse with my right as that's where it was growing up and I got fed up with switching sides. However I can use a mouse with left hand, just choose not to. Used to confuse the students when I sat between two PCs with a mouse in each hand.

 

I can also shoot right handed, but didn't have a choice in that with the SA80, I use my shotgun and air-rifles mostly lefty though (unless trying to hustle someone).

[arwen]

I am pretty much ambidextrous. I can do everything with my left hand that I can do with my right, except writing. So I have put down right handed on that basis.

[AMLinington]

The average number of people in the world is approx. 10%, but I've always suspected that this statistic is higher for people that work in IT. A few recent posts in another thread on this forum reinforced this theory. So I thought I'd create a poll to see what it is amongst Edugeekers.

 

The poll will only have 2 options (left or right). Please don't start the whole cross-dominance or ambidextrous debate - if you consider yourself to fit in those categories, just choose which one you consider to be your strongest.

e.g I write and throw with my left hand. I use racquets left handed. I bat and bowl left handed for cricket. However, I play guitar and golf right handed (but only because the equipment I had when I was learning was right handed). I use a mouse with my right hand. I consider myself to be left handed.

 

I found when I was at University that the number of Left handers in Scientific disciplines was considerably greater than the 1-in-3 number we see in general population. I did Geology and in fact more than 2/3 of the cohort were left handers. When I did my teacher training in the Secondary Science discipline again the numbers of Left Handers were much higher than in the other disciplines like English and History.

 

I think IT is a mixed bag because on the one side you have the 'scientific' or heavily technical people like developers, and on the other you have the more 'artistic' people like product designers, documentation etc. Among support people there are a wide variety of skill sets with some people less technical and more customer service oriented and others more technical.

 

There is a very clear demographic skew between our Technical office and our Sales Office - the number of Left handers in our technical office is way above 'average' and there are more right handers in our sales office.

 

I read somewhere that when a person is developing in the womb, there are a bunch of fibres connecting the two hemispheres of the brain and that when you're born, a percentage of those fibres naturally die off as part of the developmental process and that people that are left handed had less fibres die than right handers and that this explains why left handers have a predisposition to analytical disciplines because of the way their brains process information. It was very interesting.

[SiliconAlley_Sam]

I've gone for right handed because I write with my right hand but in just about everything else my left hand is dominant.

[synaesthesia]

Does anyone else that is ambidexterous (that includes those that can't or do not write with both hands) find it annoying when someone asks you to write something with the "other" hand?

I get asked every now and then if it comes up, and I don't want to tell them to look up the meaning of the word as that's rather rude (ambidexterity does NOT infer writing neatly with either hand!)

[laserblazer]

When my Great Aunt was at school before WW1, she was naturally left handed but at school was made to write with her right hand.

[witch]

Goodness, it went on much more recently than that- some friends of mine who are in their early sixties were forced to use their right hands even though they are obviously left-handed. @SiliconAlley_Sam I wonder if you write right-handed because you saw almost everyone else doing it? mrwITch writes with his right hand but does everything else left-handed - using a screwdriver, holding a squash racquet, picking up heavy weights etc. He says he doesn't remember being told that he should use his right hand.

My daughter in law is a reception teacher and she tells me that children can sometimes take a whole year or more to decide which hand they are going to write with.

I can write with my left hand and I wear my watch on the "wrong" wrist for a right-hander. My sister can write equally badly with either hand..she always says she is no-dextrous

[davipton]

I'm a lefty and always have been. I'm the only one in my immediate family and as it turns out my 6 year old is a lefty too. Waiting to see what my 1 year old uses, but will be a little way off yet!

 

David

[kearton]

We got up to just over 20% lefties last night... back down to 16% this morning after 55 votes. If you haven't voted yet, please do so. Thanks peeps!

[Mcshammer_dj]

Right handed here, had to use my left hand for a term when I was at school and Broke my arm.

 

Different story however when it comes to football where I am left footed (Do you supose being Left or Right Handed affects goalkeepers)

Edited July 30, 2014 by Mcshammer_dj

[mac_shinobi]

Right here - I can use my left hand if needed but slower and not as good

 

:-)