Question to Add to the .FAQ File.
Bloody Viking
I saw the .FAQ for this newsgroup, and noticed one question missing.
Why are people one-hand-only in the first place? Either way, the vast
majority of people are one-hand-only instead of ambidexterous. It totally
shocks people when I do display my own semi-ambidexterity, like playing
catch and switch-throwing.
You would think that ambidexterity would have the advantage a la Darwin,
but instead it was one-hand-only. And like a coin toss, it was
right-hand-only that ended up winning out.
Of course, there's the prejudice toward lefties. (i.e. "sinister") Those
who are ambi or semi-ambi are just thought of as strange. In my case, it
rather nicely fits my personality to be semi-ambi, as I also have other
odd talents and display inginuity and intrepidness. (my accent talent is a
classic, and I own several accents)
Why are people one-hand-only? A corollary question is why right-hand-only
won out. Most people take it for granted that they are one-hand-only, like
how people take for granted that they are one-accent-only instead of being
able to duplicate accents like I can.
It's easy to see why people would be shocked to come across a semi-ambi
person, as the industry standard is one-hand-only and is taken for
granted. Here, I always wondered why so few people are even semi-ambi, a
trait I always took for granted. I always noticed how people are
one-hand-only and righty of course, so I more or less complied with the
industry standard.
But while I ended up being fairly compliant with the industry standard of
right-hand-only, you never see semi-ambi people who are being compliant.
You see either-or one-hand-only-ness. Even in my case, I notice some
handedness like it does feel a little awkward to throw with the left hand
but not bad. With writing, I do so righty as the writing system was
designed for righties and hence adopted the industry standard. In a pinch,
however, I can write lefty, albeit holding the pen mirror-image of writing
righty. In the Navy, I signed logs lefty to keep my tracks covered!
One of my most bizarre behaviours in terms of handedness is computer use,
where I'm about as lefty-only as you can get. This was a historical
accident from the days I owned a Commodore 64 and used a magnifying lens
before I could afford glasses. I would hold the lens with my right hand to
my left eye and type lefty-only as a result. To this day, even though I
own glasses, I still type and use a mouse lefty-only. At one time, I did
use a computer righty but the historical accident occured, and became
lefty on them.
I just find this question fascinating that people are one-hand-only. I
don't know if I was originally meant to be a lefty or not. I'll likely
never know, and I'll surely remain semi-ambi but rightie-compliant for the
most part.
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