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Properly describing left and right (phys, not pol)
3 years ago
Does this irk you too? I can't stand it when someone is describing a person or thing that has a distinct front as the subject of their sentence and they refer to left and right relative to THEIR position rather than the subject's position. My left and right sides don't cease to be my left and right just because I'm facing you and you're describing me. Same the other way around. So why do some people have such a hard time with this? It's important for this to be a universal standard (for the same reason left and right are a universal standard).
What got me thinking about this (most recently) was a YouTube video I was watching where a guy was describing the mutated William Birkin from the remake of Resident Evil 2. They said that it was the LEFT side of his body that mutated when it's clearly his RIGHT. Another example was a YouTube movie reviewer (I won't say which one because this isn't meant to be personal, it's just an observation) describing the box art of a movie and he said something about a character's right arm while zooming in on their left arm. It was to the viewer's right, but it was the character's left. Again, why is this so hard for some people to understand? Clear and concise communication is important.
An extreme example of what happens when this aspect of communication is neglected is death by surgical malpractice because a surgeon removed a limb or organ from the wrong side of the body due to miscommunication or misunderstanding regarding lateralization. In everyday life, it's not that extreme, but it wouldn't be an issue at any rate if we allowed it to be a universal standard. Hufflepuff, represent!
What got me thinking about this (most recently) was a YouTube video I was watching where a guy was describing the mutated William Birkin from the remake of Resident Evil 2. They said that it was the LEFT side of his body that mutated when it's clearly his RIGHT. Another example was a YouTube movie reviewer (I won't say which one because this isn't meant to be personal, it's just an observation) describing the box art of a movie and he said something about a character's right arm while zooming in on their left arm. It was to the viewer's right, but it was the character's left. Again, why is this so hard for some people to understand? Clear and concise communication is important.
An extreme example of what happens when this aspect of communication is neglected is death by surgical malpractice because a surgeon removed a limb or organ from the wrong side of the body due to miscommunication or misunderstanding regarding lateralization. In everyday life, it's not that extreme, but it wouldn't be an issue at any rate if we allowed it to be a universal standard. Hufflepuff, represent!
