I know I’m not very active here and I don’t post or interact with others as much as a result so yes I understand the slight irony in some of what I’m about to say. But hear me out.
A lot of self shippers nowadays are deathly allergic to sharing the spotlight.
If you don’t find just as much joy in reblogging art from other self shippers, or being subjected to infodumps about your mutuals’ blorbos, or gushing about your faves with others who have the same fave, as you do in getting the same level of hype and love for your own ships, then truly, why are you even here? Why are you coming into this communal space and demanding attention that you are not willing to give in return?
Obviously we all want to get a little love for our own ships and have people pay attention to us and our work. That’s human nature. That’s why we’re all here lol. But if you’re going to be part of a group, especially one that relies on sharing and positivity to thrive, why would you expect to be exempt from giving and still get to take?
What makes me sad is that this isn’t even a rarity. It’s like… 50% of the self shippers I see when I’m looking for new blogs to follow. To me one of the biggest green flags is someone who has a healthy mix of posts relating to their ships and reblogs supporting other shippers. It shows me that they value uplifting others and genuinely have a passion for self shipping even when they aren’t the one in the spotlight. That’s what a community should be. That’s what self shipping USED to be. I remember, I was there.
Obviously nobody owes anybody shit. That’s just a fact. It’s not a mindset I agree with or even consider healthy, but at the end of the day, no one HAS to do anything. There’s no rent or dues to pay for being a self shipper. You can absolutely just stay in your own little bubble and never interact with anyone else ever at all. But aren’t yall bored?? The self shipping corner of the internet used to be so community-driven and loving and supportive and full of cheerleaders who would foam at the mouth and gush in the tags over the work of fellow self shippers. Now it just feels like most people are in competition with each other. It’s very “look at me, look at me, look at me.” Nobody seems to want to be in the audience anymore, everybody wants to be the main character.
Idk man. I just feel like a lot of people in this “community” lack an appreciation for others that made self shipping fun back in ye olden days. Not gonna lie, it’s a big factor in why I’m not as active here as I used to be. Because I cannot describe how disappointing it was to watch in real time as I received fewer and fewer notifications after I reblogged ship content from another self shipper or posted some of my own stuff, while the generic/relatable posts still got 50+ people reblogging it within just a few hours. It feels like the several hundred people who follow me are only here for the posts they can tag their blorbos in and don’t give a shit about anyone else or their ships. It makes me not want to post anything or reblog anything because I’m scared of overanalyzing what the numbers mean about the quality of my art or how good/interesting my ship is. Sharing my ships isn’t fun anymore. It’s fucking disheartening, idk what else to say.
I don’t even know, dude. I just really miss the self ship community we used to have. I’d give anything to have it back.
I could also go off about what an absolute cancer extreme non-sharers are to the self ship community and how the normalization of tearing people down for having different headcanons and sending actual god damn death threats and suicide bait is turning self shipping into a popularity contest, the morality Olympics, and an overall fucking minefield, but perhaps that’s a hornets nest my bat shouldn’t touch tonight.
romaincrisis
origamiaround
snowghoul
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
areudirty
titsay
