Feelings for an Object

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08 Jun 2011, 4:30 pm

Hi glider18, I remember something about factories turning off the lights while the production robots work at night, robots don't need the lights on. It did make me think.

Acacia
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08 Jun 2011, 8:25 pm

glider18 wrote:

My question is:
Is there some particular object that you do not own that you worry about?

I used to experience this very strongly as a child.

I remember one time when I was about 9, I went sailing with my family. We were out on this tourist cruising yacht, and all of a sudden a gust of wind blew the hat off someone near us and carried it out into the water. The lady who lost her hat was casual and humorous about it. But as I watched it sink, I was highly emotionally distraught. I think I even cried a little bit. I had the feeling of the hat drowning and I was especially upset because the hat was losing its function as a piece of head-wear. That fact seemed to be very important to me... that this object was losing its function.

I have many other similar experiences to this. I manage to sympathize with inanimate objects and plants, but not so well with people.

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SammichEater
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08 Jun 2011, 8:35 pm

When I drive, I try not to accelerate too fast because I feel bad for the car having to work too hard. Same with my computer. It disturbs me if I see that my CPU usage has been above 80% for a few minutes. I also feel bad when I stop using things, or if I leave something behind.

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08 Jun 2011, 9:08 pm

Joe90 wrote:

Having feelings for objects is becoming a big issue for me. I have recently got a new computer, and I've shoved my old one in the bottom of my wardrobe, because I ''feel sorry'' for it, like I would a person. When a house is burning down, I ''feel sorry'' for the house. When a boat sinks I ''feel sorry'' for the boat. It's driving me mad! I feel sorry for people, animals and insects too, but in a different way. Like if someone dies, it makes me cry or feel very sad, and I think about the people left behind and feel so sorry for them (which is normal). But I also feel sorry for objects, but in a different sort of way which is hard to describe, even in my head. Just think of an umbrella, for example. The manufacturers made the umbrella for people to put up when it's raining, to keep them dry, then they put it down again when they get indoors, and put it in a cupboard or something. Some umbrellas have nice patterns or designs on, to make people like them and think they're pretty. But if, say, I saw somebody whacking somebody else over the head with one, I would ''feel sorry'' for it, because it's not meant to be used to whack people over the head with. It's meant to keep you dry on rainy days. That's what the manufacturers made it for. It's just an innocent umbrella, used to give people the full benefit against rain. And as for the person being whacked over the head with the umbrella, I would feel sorry for them too, and I would feel like saving the person and the umbrella. Ohh, it's too complicated to explain!

I can relate to every part of this post. I feel that way about objects, and especially when their purpose is negated or violated.

I also have two of my previous computers still in my room*. I also make a point to take at least one piece of my prior computer and move it to the new one. This one has the power supply from the last, but the last had two hard drives, and the one before that had one hard drive. I am a bit uncomfortable with not being able to use my old drives in my newest computer, but I was able to transfer files I've had since 1995 across anyway, thanks to an external drive, so I kind of feel like things worked out okay anyway.

But the worst, the absolute worst, is when a book is destroyed.

* I do really need to get rid of these, but one makes a good doorstop and the other has old hard drives I need to get the data off of eventually.

glider18
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08 Jun 2011, 10:35 pm

Hi everyone that's replied on this issue. I am indeed not alone in this challenge. It seems a lot of us have feelings for objects and feel sorry for them. I always hated garbage day---and I still do. I used to (and still do) look in our garbage in case someone threw something away that I feel shouldn't have been.

I can remember when I was 9 years old on vacation in Myrtle Beach tying my beach towels and swim trunks to the chairs on our balcony because I feared they could blow off.

I can remember a vacation when I was 11 that my father forgot something at a restaurant---I wanted him to turn back and get it but he wouldn't---because it didn't cost that much. But I felt sorry for it. It turns out the people we were vacationing with had picked it up so it wasn't lost afterall.

I have had many incidents with stuff like this.

Thank you to all of you that have shared on this.

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OJani
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09 Jun 2011, 3:04 am

glider18 wrote:

Is there some particular object that you do not own that you worry about?

For example, one of mine is the Swamp Fox roller coaster in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. If it were ever torn down, I would feel deeply saddened. But so far, it's future seems bright. It still exists today partly because of my obsession for it. (...)

Can you relate to this? Do you have such an object in your life? If so, could you share your experience with it?

Absolutely. I've read your OP like this. I didn't know what a "roller coaster" is, and after I've read "some particular object that you do not own", I immediately associated it to an amusement park, independently from you... A simple one from my childhood, with no roller coaster among the facilities. I had feelings toward the whole park, and particularly to some of its facilities, the little accumulator-powered dodgem for kids, a narrow-gauge railway in the nearby forest (non-existent now), the ferris-wheel (this was sadly taken apart due to aging, as I child I always felt uneasy in one of its gondolas when it moved), and a modest-looking magic castle which I feared as a child (lots of gadgets, labyrinth, etc.). Unfortunately my feelings have faded significantly during the past years.

I still have feelings toward my preschool, school, and probably some other places.

I have plenty of objects that I own and have feelings toward them. I'm very reluctant to get rid of any of my old stuff, some of them are really like true relics to me...

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09 Jun 2011, 3:22 am

Acacia wrote:

This used to happen all the time to me when I was a kid. I remember my baby sister throwing her bottle out of her pram and it went into the road and got run over by a bus. That didn't set me off, but when I realised my mum wasn't going to pick up the pieces and take them home with us I just went into total screaming meltdown mode. She didn't have a clue what was wrong and just got really exasperated by me.

I remember another time in a toyshop I saw a soft toy spaniel that I really liked. I stood there stroking him for ages and gave him a name and everything. When I wasn't allowed to buy him my parents thought I was having a mega tantrum just to get my own way but I was in a genuine panic about leaving him behind in the shop now he was mine. On that occasion they actually did cave in and give me an extra £2 so I ended up taking him home with me after all. 30+ years later I still have him, stored with my other teddies etc in my folks' garage.

Remembering these incidents makes me a lot more sympathetic than most other people to kids throwing tantrums...

Last edited by Tao on 09 Jun 2011, 5:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

OJani
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09 Jun 2011, 3:57 am

glider18 wrote:

I can remember a vacation when I was 11 that my father forgot something at a restaurant---I wanted him to turn back and get it but he wouldn't---because it didn't cost that much. But I felt sorry for it. It turns out the people we were vacationing with had picked it up so it wasn't lost afterall.

Once I've lost a brown wind-coat which I liked very much, I took it almost everywhere. My friends used to say how obligatory I was about it, picking on my taste and lack of desire for change. I put it down at a pub, forgot there, and when I came back it was gone... I was sooo sad...

I still think of it sometimes, although 11 years have passed since then...

crouton
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09 Jun 2011, 9:32 am

I have some strange feelings of pity for objects when they look 'lonely' (I've been known to intend to take one chocolate out of a box, and then take another, seahorse-shaped one out to eat as well because I felt so sorry for it ), or when they sound as though they're 'in pain' (steam train whistles are an example). I don't think I have more feelings for objects than I do for people, though. I wonder if it's just some weird extension of my empathy with other people, especially given that most of the objects I have feelings for have 'faces' (e.g. that of the seahorse-shaped chocolate).

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