As a forenote, I don’t hate shipping, I hate shippers. There are good exceptions to all of these things, but these trends run deep enough in the community that you can generally expect them.

Edit: I guess I should have defined "Shippers" since I'm complaining about them. Having a couple you like doesn't make you a shipper. Shippers are those who are devoted to romantic pairings to the point that it commonly becomes the theme of their interactions with others in the community, whether wanted or not.

Ships are All Consuming

When a Ship is introduced into a fanfic, a blog, or even just an art gallery, it crowds out everything else. All character development becomes for the purpose of making a character more attractive to a mate or to overcome relationship problems. Whatever goals a character has are left on the wayside and the ultimate purpose of whatever they’re doing becomes “hook up with your lover.”

I think the best example of this is The Royal Sketchbook. For a while it was a lighthearted slice of life blog about the 4 princesses. Then Twilight x Luna got introduced, and the blog has been about nothing BUT Twilight x Luna since. And it’s not because people are only asking questions about our lucky couple - a popular blog like that has more than enough questions being asked for the author to pick and choose through them to steer the blog in whatever direction they want. The fact is when the ship sailed in the author cut every other aspect to make room for it.

Ships Are Extreme and Non Negotiable

Similar to how all adventures must escalate until you save the planet, all character relationship are incomplete until they’ve reached romance stages. If two characters hang out it’s obviously because they’re deeply in love. No other type of relationship exists.

My favorite example here is Lyra and Bon Bon. All they did for 4 seasons is stand next to each other in the background and people are were totally convinced they were lovers. The writers even took note of this trend and made fun of fans for it in Slice of Life - Lyra lists such innocuous acts as “sitting on benches” and “long talks” as cornerstones of their relationship. These are extremely mundane things that have no indication of romance, but funnily enough fans took this slight against them as absolute proof of their relationship.

In the most recent episode we had a pair of ponies that went shopping together. BAM! instant ship. The writers later clarified that they were sisters, a thought that probably never crossed people’s minds because two ponies hanging out together are obviously a couple.

Not that being related and being a couple are mutually exclusive, mind you. Shipping will find a way.

And forget talking about such things as mere possibilities. No, X ship is totally canon and you’re simply in denial. The level of fanaticism people have for their fictitious romance couples is crazy.

Edit: I guess I should clarify that what I find particularly annoying is that shippers try really hard to force situations into being ships that clearly aren't. Take this pic Underpable just posted for instance. Now read the comments.

Shipping portrays romance in a way that is pretty shallow

The way shipping is handled reminds me more of those couples making out in the halls between classes in high school than any sort of healthy relationship. I mean I can kinda understand this to a degree - it’s much more fun to look at fanart of two ponies making out then it is to see them reviewing finances to see if they should eat takeout less often.

The way these characters are being portrayed I just honestly cannot see these characters living each other’s lives, still strong 10 or 20 years down the line. It seems like everyone gets stuck in the idea that a relationship is just a string of ‘passion’ scenes with nothing else to it.

Edit: I'll further clarify that what I dislike is people being so focused on things superficial things - cuddles and kisses as /u/SeatieBelt put it - and that it doesn't do justice to the real meaningful parts of a relationship.