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Beloved objects can be "private objects", meaning objects that one owns, which can include: toys, cars/trucks, plants, musical instruments, articles of clothing, etc. They can also be "public objects", meaning objects that are something public or in a public space, which can include: buildings, bridges, machines, statues, fences, water, amusement park rides, etc. Objects do not have to be tangible and can also include things such as logos, letters, or concepts. Some objectum people are [[polyamorous]], and are dedicated to many objects, while some are devoted to a single object. Objectum people can be attracted to people as well or they could be exclusively attracted to objects.

Some objectum people believe in animism; the idea that everything has a spirit or spiritual energy, including people, plants, animals, and objects. Others have noted the high number of OS people who identify as being on the autism spectrum, leading to the accepted understanding that there are two separate ways to experience objectum sexuality. Some autistic OS people have stated that they do not identify as animists and do not feel that objects have a spirit, but that their attraction is the result of synesthesia<ref>'Objectum sexuality: A sexual orientation linked with autism and synaesthesia': https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31882730/</ref>. Regardless, objectum people will often talk to their beloved objects and many feel that the object talks back in its own way.

Objectum sexuality is different from a sexual paraphilia, as a paraphilia does not imply a devoted personal relationship, feeling mutual and reciprocal attraction, and usually does not include animistic beliefs. Dr. Amy Marsh, a sexologist who has studied OS people, has developed a spectrum that explains some of the differences between object fetishism and objectum orientation.<ref>http://waihili.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/marshspectrum.pdf</ref>

Relationships and orientations that can be described as objectum are found throughout human history in mythology, folklore, and the lives of real people.

The term "objectum sexuality" was coined by Eija-Riitta Eklöf and two other objectum-sexuals in the early 1970's. In 2008, Erika Eiffel and Oliver Arndt founded Objectum Internationale<ref>http://objectum-sexuality.org/</ref>, an organization dedicated to providing education about the orientation both to people questioning themselves as well as the general public. Since then its members have made appearances in documentaries, on news programs, and in journalistic publications. Unfortunately, the organization has had to withdraw support for many of these features due to sensationalized and discriminatory editing of interviews that result in willful misrepresentation of OS people.

The panjectum flag was coined on November 15th of 2020 by Tumblr user gender-horderz. The colors of the flag are a slightly more pastel reverse pan pride flag to show a more tender love that comes with being objectum and to show how objectum people experience attraction in a different way. The white heart is meant to represent objects and love for all objects regardless of category.

The flora- flag was coined by Tumblr user gender-horderz on May 26th of 2020. Pink represents the tender love (platonic or otherwise) that someone may feel for a plant or nature, light green represents the life and growing of nature, and light yellow represents the happiness objectum folks feel when with their partners. The flower is there to further drive the idea of nature into the pride flag, and is white to show the purity in objectum and similar identifying people’s hearts.