Does anyone else feel empathy for inanimate objects?

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I have a hard time with feeling bad for objects. I'll grab the somewhat crushed bag of chips or the chipped toy nobody wants because I feel bad for it, and I'll wear that one shirt I don't like all that much because it feels neglected. I get they're inanimate, and they feel nothing, but the thoughts are intrusive and sometimes I feel bad enough to act on them. Does anyone else experience this, or is it just me?

I do. I used to make a joke out of it and say that Toy Story warped the way I look at things, hehe. I have to do it though, it's not always but when it hits me it's almost like a compulsion. I just joke about it, "oh, the poor dented Gatorade bottle needs love too." "This can shouldn't always have to sit at the back of the pantry." "This towel deserves a turn too."

Yes, and it ruins my life.

I get anxious when cutting up an apple.

I get really upset if someone insults an object or even a place.

I worry about objects being left in a burning building.

Like the above poster said, Toy Story is partly to blame.

But it doesn't mean I don't feel empathy for humans or animals.

You're not alone:

I Pity Inanimate Objects
by Godley & Creme

I pity inanimate objects
Because they can't move
From specks of dust to paperweights
Or a pound note sealed in resin
Plastic Santas in perpetual underwater snowstorms
Sculptures that appear to be moving
But aren't
I feel sorry for them all

What are they thinking
When they arrive at a place
Do they sigh with disappointment
And when they leave
Do they have regrets?
Is a sofa as happy in one corner
As it is in another
And how does the room feel about it?

I pity inanimate objects
I pity inanimate objects
I pity inanimate objects
I pity them all

Physics isn't fair
Is a tree as a rocking horse
An ambition fulfilled
And is the sawdust jealous?
I worry about these things

Peppercorns don't move
Until they contaminate the ice-cream
Three weeks later
Is the gold in Fort Knox happy gold?
I care about these things

Some things are better left alone
Grains of sand prefer their own company
But magnets are two faced
No choice for sugar
But what choice could there be
But to drown in coffee or to drown in tea
The frustrations of being inanimate

Maybe its better that way
The fewer the moving parts
The less there is to go wrong
I wonder about these things

I pity inanimate objects
I pity inanimate objects
I pity inanimate objects
I pity them all

when we changed our motorhome i cried a lot, (it was 22, a bit hippie), i thought my parests betrayed it and i still do. i don't actually get sad cutting a carrot or breaking a glass. so, yes but just a little

And yet we're not supposed to feel empathy for living people.

I don't usually feel empathy for things that are broken or a mess. I worry that they may no longer be safe or sanitary. Not even toys that look like living creatures, unless I know I can fix them or craft them into something cool.

Jeez, if I felt badly for every little thing I wouldn't survive. Thanks to that Sausage Party movie I just don't feel the same now when buying groceries or eating baby carrots. What else is there, starvation?

Yes, often. I'm the person who buys the broken Christmas tree decoration because it's all alone on the shelf and no one else wants it. I worry about neglecting items of clothing or jewellery. If I stroke the fur of one of my cuddly toys, I have to then stroke all of them in case they feel bad that I didn't give them equal attention (which takes a while as there are currently 68 of them).

I strongly identify with everything that has been posted here.

Even bits of texture on the wall or patterns in the woodgrain have not only been objects of my pity, I have also understood myself, especially in childhood, as being the object of THEIR pity.

I can't stand seeing things lying face down, and my waistline would be a lot trimmer if not for all the uneaten food I've felt sorry for. To be fair, I also feel sorry for the person that made the food. I once ate an entire plate of burned cookies for this reason.

I'm like this too, sometimes, but then I grip myself with the fact that said object lacks any kind of brain or neurons to feel anything. It's mainly with things being crushed or mashed beyond repair. I remember crying when I was younger when I saw this clip on David Letterman where people dropped fruit from the roof a building and it exploded when it hit the ground. Last week, when I was driving to school, I saw the garbage man throw a toilet into the truck and watched it smash into pieces, and I got a wave of sadness from that.

I felt sorry for a pair of skis that had never been on the snow, they were a couple years old and were on sale, so I bought them and still use them

Not me. I am completely cold hearted and indifferent towards the suffering of inanimate objects and sometimes relieve stress by inflicting damage upon them. However, when I crash into things, stub my toe on something, my dad thinks it's hilarious to say "oh poor footstool!" when I've smashed my foot into it and am writhing in pain. Die footstool, die.

Very rarely, but if there's something resembling a sad face in the environment I notice it and feel some empathy - like when I can see a wrecked car, with those sad front lights that look like eyes. Sad looking, damaged fluffy toys (especially animal ones) also do it to me. Once I saw a toy bunny plushie half submerged in a puddle, soaking up dirty water, all forgotten... it almost brought me to tears.
With objects lacking faces it's mostly sad to see them smashed in pieces, crushed, melting while burned.

I felt sympathy/emapathy for all kinds of things... little oranges in the grocery store that have to either be eaten or rot... what kind of a life is that, I reasoned... my stuffed polar bears... I felt so sad after a favorite pen was stolen that I hadn't had the chance to give it a kiss like I'd contemplated the night before but hadn't done... all kinds of things. I still do. Everything is alive, actually. Not everything has a brain or nerves, and we should prioritize those who have a brain or nerves because it hurts them not to... the other stuff is alive too, but it usually won't get hurt if we don't pay it attention or hug it or talk to it.

Yes, to the irritation of my family I buy broken electronics.
That DVD player that was bashed in... that poor lonely stuffed animal with the torn ear.

When I was young I had an absolute breakdown because someone stood on a plush toy and it squeaked as if it was crying.

I have my moments sometimes. Depending on my mood, I would've pity a living being as much as I would've pity non-living ones.
But not to the extent that I have to name one or cry at it for being damaged or neglected, perhaps just a twinge at most.

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I loved a lot of stuff better than I loved some people, as a lot of people treated me like garbage.