When you’re surrounded by things that feel like they were designed and made with someone else in mind, the soullessness wears you down. You implicitly become a background character in your own life story. It sends a subtle message to your subconscious that you don’t count for much, that you are not important enough to do things for yourself just because they work well and bring you joy.
The Science Behind Ownership and Identity
Psychologists refer to our capacity to shape and control the world around us as “environmental mastery”. This is one of the steadiest indicators of wellbeing people have managed to find – regardless of how old you are, on the whole, the more agency you feel you have in your immediate environment, the less anxiety you have and the more vitally engaged you feel with your (bugs and all) surroundings.
Customisation plays right into this. When you tweak a thing about an object – the colour, the name slapped on the side of it, how it’s arranged, where it is in relation to other objects – you are enacting an actual real-world locus of control in a universe where everything is decided for you before you even lay eyes on the product. It’s more important than it sounds.
There’s also the endowment effect, under which we value something more, first, just because we have mucked about with it, and second, because we have mucked about with it. A study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology had participants value a customised object 63% more than a pre-assembled one, even when the physical change was functionally worthless. The difference was the effort and intent.
Small Moments, Repeated Daily
Customization can be seen as a “self-expression luxury” for people who already have the time or energy to think about aesthetics. Far from it. We spend most of our lives using and engaging with the same core set of objects and spaces. Installing a poster you like directly in your eye line costs zero time, zero energy. Buying a backpack in the color you think is coolest instead of the color that was available costs zero ongoing cognitive load. This is the low-hanging fruit of self-expression that slips away when you think customization is a luxury time-sink.
Even simple daily choices—like what you wear—play a role in shaping your identity, much like exploring different ways of styling pullovers and cardigans to reflect your personal style.
Your Car Is Not Just Transport
Looking at the example of a vehicle, it reflects how we’ve become accustomed to disregarding our own likes and dislikes. For the majority of individuals, a car is chosen based on the criteria of price, reliability, and practicality – all perfectly sensible criteria – and is then bought as a final, unchangeable product.
However, you do spend quite a lot of time in your car or near your car, and there’s nothing to say that it has to be a completely faceless experience. Mats, seat covers, and paintwork are all easy ways to make a vehicle feel a little less like a generic appliance and a little more like something that reflects who you actually are.
If you’re exploring private plate ideas as a starting point, the process tends to make you ask the broader question of what you want your car to say about you – and if that’s humor, or just your initials, or an important date, the answer is perfectly valid. There’s no business like thinking about your car as an extension of yourself so that you can maximize the utility and enjoyment you get from owning it.
Identity In A Homogenised World
There is a broader trend here we should acknowledge. The digital world has made the world look more homogeneous faster. Algorithms keep up to date with the latest craze and drives it to millions of people with incredible speed. Meanwhile, chain stores make sure these crazes are available and all identical on a massive scale.
Personalization serves as counterbalance. Be it a unique plate on your car, a tailored color palette for your gadgets, or a distinct statement piece on your bag, these are what psychologists identify as “identity signals“. They are visible hints that you are trying to communicate something important about yourself to others around you.
It’s not just about you or me, though. Your stuff can also be a great conversation starter. They foster a sense of identity and belonging far better than mass-designed counterparts. When someone reads your plate, phone case, or even your coffee cup and notices the unique design, suddenly you’ve got a human connection right then and there.
Emotional Durability Over Throwaway Culture
An often overlooked advantage of customization is that you are less likely to throw things away. Items that you have put thought and effort into are not easily discarded in favor of the latest model. You have formed a true connection with them, and that connection is precious.
This goes against the constant consumption pattern that leads to its type of persistent tension – that your current possessions are not good enough or not perfect, and that the next acquisition will make them so. Customizing what belongs to you already tends to ease that tension much better than another purchase.
The aim is not a life of everything perfectly matching. It’s a life where everything is chosen.