Are you left handed, right handed, or in between?

[Bellatrix]

Thankfully in the country I happen to live, we drive on the left and so have the steering wheel on the right, which means the gear-stick requires the use of one's left hand. I'm actually "mixed handedness, dominant right" according to the above classifications, and there are some things I can't imagine doing with my right (like changing gears - it would be a nightmare).

 

[Vixus]

I am definitely (naturally) a righty, but I often use tools more comfortably in my left. Wrenches, screw drivers, my phone, etc. I qlso will use a mouse in my left hand while writing in a notebook with my right. I almost always use a laptop track pad with my left.

... So one thing I've wondered about left and right handedness is: they say the right hand relates strongest to the left brain and left hand most strongly to the right brain, so when we do things with our right hand does that mean we are increasing our left brain competency and strengthening that part of the brain, and vice versa, when doing things with our left hand do we strengthen our right brain functions??
Since I'm becoming better at writing with my right hand, does that mean I might be increasing my left brain functions, and if I become better doing other things with left hand, with my right brain functions become stronger??
Because I still don't know if I am more "left brained or right brained".
They say that the left brain is strong in language (which I am) but also in "exact mathematical calculations", which I'm VERY bad at, so that's odd...
Then they say that the right brain is used for spatial abilities (which I'm bad at), face recognition (which I'm good at), and music (which I'm good at).
So with that said: I can't tell if I'm more right or left brained.
What do you guys think about these questions of left vs right brain and whether practicing using different hands could strengthen other functions of whatever side of the brain that hand corresponds to??
And would you guys consider me "mixed handed-ness dominant right" like I voted, since I write with my left hand but do everything else with my right??

That was a long post...
According to common conventional knowledge... at least what we think we know, you would be correct. However, I believe that the "right hand left brian" concept has existed far longer than our ability to observe peoples actual mental operation. Im not sure that the concept is entirely literal or if assuming that it was related to the sides of a persons brain was the only logical wqy of seperating it (something righties like to do).
I have observed that many lefties are far more creative, and accell in areas that creativity and unpredictability are key. I am a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is a group for medieval reenactment. My region is notorious for having a mind boggling amount of left handed fighters in b8th heavy combat and rapier. Our barrony has many champions, and our neighbors actually know us as being the one with too many lefties.
In other words: I don't quite agree that it is biologically correct that you left hand connects to the right hemisohere of your brain, but it is certainly true that the people who are left handed... perhaps caused by their ability to think seperately from the norm.

 

[Jennacide]

Im right handed for most things...but cant brush my hair or teeth or do anything in a repetitive back and forth motion with my right hand ... wierd
I started to write with my left hand at school but teacher made me write with my right.
I have practised writing with my left hand and can train it to work just as good.
Always right handed with sports.

 

[Questella]

Some things I just do better left handed. Some right. When I was in school I'd get in trouble often for using my wrong hand to do things. I even had to redo assignments because I'd use my left hand for whatever reason that time. Teachers would get so pissed. I could never understand the big deal but some people seem to be super offended by someone having the ability to use either hand. To this day I use a computer left-handed and write right-handed. I always move the mouse and change the settings on school and library computers lmao. Eating goes either or but normally right, but depending who I'm sitting by or where I am at the table it will change accordingly. Sports I tend to fly left and I only ever could half-@** play guitar left-handed. Haha people get so mad.

 

[Pariah Dog]

I am almost ambidextrous with the exception of things that take very fine precision I will use my right hand. Hand writing, manipulating a tiny screw driver, things of that sort. People seem sometimes awed how I will do most other things fairly indifferently from one hand to the other.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

I am necroposting here because why not hehe.

I write with my left hand but many other things I do them with my right hand, and when I was a teenager and tried different sports or other activites I was always trying both side because I didnt felt like one was better than the other.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I'm left-handed, my parents are both left-handed, and I am thankful to be living in a time and place where being sinister is (usually) acceptable.

 

[Progster]

Right handed.
I saw something interesting in a documentary the other day, that right-handed people use their right hand more for practical tasks, but their left hand for social signals.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

but their left hand for social signals.

What is this some kind of magic trick?

 

[puzzlingbill]

What is this some kind of magic trick?

In right-handed people the left side of the brain is the logical side and the right side of the brain is the intuitive side. So it's actually logical that the right hand/left brain handles more mundane, logical and functional tasks, while the left hand/right brain is more in touch with the intuitive side of the brain. Left brain function also includes things you can do without thinking, like putting the key in the lock and opening the door, or putting your foot on the brake when you're driving and need to stop.

In left-handed people it's the other way around. (And they can correctly point out that they're the only ones in their right mind. )

 

[Isadoorian]

Lefty; though when I was much younger (about 5 or maybe 6?) I used to be Ambidextrous; Doctors accidentally gave me a bit too much of something and it paralyzed me for a brief time, went to Physiotherapy to get it sorted all out. They started w/ my Left side and worked on that side for so long that I became a lefty.

 

[Progster]

What is this some kind of magic trick?

No. It is supposedly, according to the documentary, because the right hemisphere of the brain controls social gestures, and the left hemisphere controls logic, reasoning, practical tasks, so one tends to use each hand differently.

 

[tlc]

I'm left handed but my music teacher had me try/learn on right handed insturments. Turns out I am right handed musically. It is a blessing bc the majority of instruments are for righties so I have access to more instruments bc I can play them rightie.

Yes your teacher was smart, there is so much more selection of instruments for righties. I play both keyboard and bass. I could have learned either way, but the way I always understood it was that just like a piano where pitches increase from left to right, the pitches on a guitar increase from left to right if played "righty". But since you grasp the neck from below, it did take me some getting used to since on a piano the pitches on the left hand increase from pinky to index finger, but on a guitar it's reverse. Playing lefty that confusion wouldn't exist.

I learned to write righty but do pretty much everything else lefty. Or ambidextrous, many things just go to which hand is available, even using tools or turning a key in a lock. I can type on the full keyboard with the left but is slow with the right. Can use the mouse either way, dial a phone either way, eat, drink, if I smoked I'd hold it with the left. As a kid I skateboarded and was told I rode barkwards or goofyfoot, but once I saw pictures of Tony Hawk riding like me, I dismissed it from being wrong. During my daughter's hunter safety a few years ago, I learned I am left eye dominant, and right hand/left eye dominant they said is a rare combination. I had thought most people were and that's why viewfinders are on the left side of cameras.

In 1997 I broke my right wrist rollerskating and that side was out of commission for 2 months. So I had to do everything with my left hand. It wasn't hard to write lefty, people said I wrote better with my left than they did with their right. I worked with another engineer at the time who only had 1 arm to begin with, so I had some fellowship. But one thing happened. With my right arm being out of service, I started thinking differently. We designed engine transfer machines and I started reading the drawings from left to right instead of right to left. I wondered if this is how lefties think.

 

[WildCat]

Predominantly right handed. Right sided really - my right limbs function better than the left ones. With exceptions, asking me to left hand is just disaster waiting to happen.

 

[DCA]

I'm a righty as well.