Do non-living things have personalities to you?

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This is something I first noticed when I was younger. I've always felt that everything, even non-living things, have personalities. This sometimes made, and continues to make, life awkward. For example, when I used to put dishes away I would worry that maybe two dishes I put next to each other didn't like each other and would fight until they were separated. Or say I put the cups away first. Then I would feel like all the other dishes felt let down because they weren't first and maybe they thought I liked the cups most. This is a huge part of why I am not one of the people that constantly rearranges things, like books and such. I worry that I may be separating best friends, or might cause fights between certain objects. I've never known anybody else to think this way until I saw a documentary about a girl with AS who said that she feels if she picks one pair of shoes over the other then the second pair will feel sad.

I don't think they actually do, but they seem like it, it seems to be part of human nature to anthropomorphize the environment and relate to it that way. I just go along with that flow, keeping in mind what it is, a function of human nature, not an external reality. Animism appeals to me in this way sometimes.

That being said, I've never had it complicate anything like wondering if the dishes hate each other. It's more that objects affect my mood and I assign that mood to the objects. If a tree makes me feel more peaceful, it gets assigned a peaceful personality. If I trip break my ankle on a concrete step, that step acquires a malicious personality. None of which I see as real, its more of just a mood related to the object.

As illogical as it is, I also feel like objects have personalities. Especially objects I'm obsessed with or which have to do with my special interests, but almost all objects have a personality to me. With musical instruments it feels much more powerful to me, though - and primarily the objects I'm obsessed with are my musical instruments - especially my j-bass and my les paul.

For example, when I play my les paul a lot, I feel excited and such because I'm obsessed with it, but at the same time I feel bad because I'm not playing my j-bass, and it's even worse if my j-bass is in the room at the same time. It's totally illogical to me but I feel it anyway.

Funnily, if I'm playing my synthesizer or ocarina or melodica or something not having strings, I won't feel so bad about it.

Sometimes. But I might personalize them myself more often than believing that they have personalities of their own. I do believe that they have energy and are alive in their own way, but I'm not sure about personhood. I have to get to know them before I'll assign a personality or a name to certain objects. At my dad's house I say goodnight to the appliances and other objects, but at my apartment I can't feel them well. I talk to them but I don't feel anything toward them and I haven't named any of those objects. I'm not sure if this is because I don't know them at that level or because the environment is not condusive for those types of relationships.

A few years ago at a lawn sale I separated a nicknack from a whole group of similar nicknacks, I left it alone and took the rest. As soon as I realized what I had done I felt very sorry for that poor lonely nicknack that would be discarded and never loved nor looked at again. I felt bad about myself for having done that to it.

When I pet my stuffed animals I frequently have to touch every single one of them because if I didn't they would feel left out, and I don't want any of them to feel slighted.

Last edited by Casstranquility on 02 Jun 2012, 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've been the same way since I was a kid. As I got older I realized, intellectually, the this is a false belief but I still can't stop the ideas from forming in my head. The difference now, compared to when I was a kid, is that I don't let it change my behavior. Sadly, I still often feel more compassion for objects and animals than I do for people. I know I shouldn't, but I can't do anything about it.

Mostly cars and trucks I tend to keep them for 300,000miles 482,803km befor the are retired they tent to develope personalitys.

For me there is no belief that they have personalities of their own - I believe it's just me personalizing them myself.



For me it's more instant with most objects, but with all objects, as I get to "know" them over time, their personalities get more depth.



I also talk to objects all the time, especially the ones I'm obsessed with.

If you don't mind me asking, how "in depth" do they get? Like, do they have relationships, favorite things, moods, etc?

They can get VERY in depth. They can even change and develop over time, especially if I modify the object. My j-bass for example: when I changed the pickups, it was like it died and was reborn slightly different. Same thing to an even bigger degree with all the fretless conversions I've done to instruments. Any little modification will change the personality though.

They have relationships, both with me and with each other and with others that I've seen use them. I can tell whether my bass likes someone or not when they play it(I know the bass doesn't -actually- feel anything, because that would be totally illogical, but it's just what I feel). Usually my bass laughs at people who suck at playing him. So far I'm also the only person who can play him the ways he likes. At the same time, I play certain things sometimes and the bass doesn't like it - most of the songs for one of my bands are this way. But I play them anyway. My bass feels bored at those times - I do too sometimes, but I generally enjoy the music anyway even if I'm playing simple repetitive stuff. My bass is very, very arrogant.

They have moods and favorite things/things they don't like too. For instance, right now I'm a bit low on guitar straps, because I keep breaking them, and my bass doesn't like the strap it has right now, at all. It's the one that I had on another bass of mine for pretty much it's entire existence, and my j-bass knows this and just feels wrong wearing it like how I imagine it would feel wearing someone else's clothes. The strap is blue and purple, with devices on the ends that lock the strap onto the instrument - the bass it usually goes on is headless, V shaped, and blue (it's a Steinberger). I just need a nice strap that's comfortable and adjusts to the height I like - my suede one is just too long, but incredibly comfortable.

I could go on and on and on and on and on. You can ask more in depth questions if you like. Might not answer until later though, I have a show later tonight.

I want to expand on their relationships with each other - my acoustic fretless bass is very shy and doesn't interact with the other instruments much. My fretless guitar, when it still had frets, was just kind of lame personality, lazy, etc. Now it's like a hippie sort of. The steinberger bass is not used as much anymore, but it used to be my primary instrument - but he doesn't care. We have a mutual respect for each other, and my steinberger and J-bass (current main bass) also have a respect and admiration for each other. The J-bass of course still thinks he's superior.

Cars, especially. I assign them fairly complex personalities. I know, of course, that it's not real. But then again, I kind of wonder....

This can be synesthesia. Some synesthetes have objects -> personalities and describe stuff similar to what people are saying in this thread.

I read somewhere this one person talking about a television being (to them) a young boy, so they would never watch anything racy on that TV.

Musical instruments seem to each have a personality to me. I could look at an empty stage at a rock concert and imagine that each instrument has their own personality.

All computers have personalities to me. Their name must match their personality and gender if they have one. However this goes beyond just their names. They have feelings and preferences and can learn from each other. For example, Patina was a very innocent computer until another computer corrupted her, and now she's more of the type who will sit around until she suddenly makes a dirty joke and surprises everyone because they'd not expect her to do so.

Yeeeessss....... I used to have a hard time picking out what shoes to wear because the other one would be sad

AnD when I haveto pick a stuffed animal out of many it's soo hard and I don't formally assign personalitys they just give them to to their self

Also all the numbers and letters have genders and personalities like that too

I very often think of mathematical objects as having personalities.

It's not just because I'm crazy, it's also because I think it's a really good way to understand and write proofs. For example, when I am explaining a proof to someone using a whiteboard, I very often refer to "this guy" and "that guy" while pointing to certain objects on the whiteboard, and talk about them making deals with each other, or telling each other where to go, or one killing the other, or something like that.

Strangely, all mathematical objects are male to me. Maybe that means I'm sexist or something, or maybe it's just that it seems odd to talk about women killing each other and ordering each other around.