I’m right-handed but I mostly use my left for things like opening doors, picking up stuff, using phone, holding food… and my right hand for things that requires fined dexterity like writing, using utensils, using keys… My friends see me using my left-hand most of the time and kept asking me why I barely use my right hand. Some people who met for the first time actually thought that I’m left-handed for some reason.

Is it really that weird to not use your dominant hand as much? I’m sure I’m not born left-handed and trained to be right-handed when I was small, I’ve been right-handed for as long as I can remember.

    • Tolstoshev@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And it can be acquired through practice. I’m a lefty but I’m way more comfortable using a mouse with my right hand from years of practice. I worked in IT so it wasn’t feasible to always move the mouse to the other side when working on other people’s computers or on server KVMs.

      Edit: this also applies to all handed devices like scissors, beveled knives, etc.

  • counselwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I wanted to be ambidextrous when I was young, but i didn’t want to work too hard on it. So I just intentionally use my left hand on most things and that led to a habit. I still write with my right hand, but I mainly use my left hand for most stuff.

  • guyrocket@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s not really your “off hand” any more, is it? You just need to understand which hand is dominant now.

  • BlinkAndItsGone@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    It isn’t strange to use your non-dominant hand for things, no. Maybe most people do lean toward using their dominant hand for everyday tasks, but I think it’s a matter of habit for most things. “Non-dominant” doesn’t mean “nearly useless”.

    I would say it is a bit strange for your friends to pay a lot of attention to which hand you use to unlock doors.

  • gerryflap@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    I think that’s normal. I’m right-handed, but I have my phone in my left pocket and tend to use it in my left hand when using it with one hand. Last week I also had someone ask me whether I was left handed because I used my fork in my left hand to hold the food still and my knife in my right hand to cut the food. I honestly never think about these things, they just kinda happened over time because it worked for me. In my experience my dominant hand is obviously better for most things, but in the end it’s also a matter of training. If, for whatever reason, I use my non-dominant hand for something repeatedly instead of my dominant hand then my non-dominant hand will get better. It’s just that the dominant hand improves faster and has a higher “skill ceiling” in my experience.

    • Chris@rabbitea.rs
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      1 year ago

      Fork in my left hand and knife in my right hand

      That’s the normal way for right-handed people! If there’s no knife then fork goes in the right hand.

    • my_hat_stinks@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Knife in right hand is the normal way to use a knife and fork if you’re right-handed. Did they use their knife in their left hand? Sounds a bit sinister.

      • gerryflap@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        They were left-handed and used the same hands as I did for the fork and the knife. It might simply be caused by the “normal” placement of the fork and knife next to the plate.