.:shipping is useful:.

It seems like you're constantly running into people who feel the need to rant on about how Shipping is totally pointless and stupid and a big waste of time. This would be my answer to them.

Shipping, at its core, is just the belief in love between two fictional characters. But all of the things that are involved in Shipping can actually teach important life lessons and skills.

creative writing- Most Shippers end up writing fanfiction about thier couple. Basically, this is a practice of creativity and writing skills. A lot of people who went on to become professional authors started out in fanfiction. And even for people who just plan to keep it as a hobby, it's still a useful skill to develop.

general writing- Many Shippers type up long argumentitive and expository essays for Shipping. This is good practice for learning how to get ideas across coherently in the written form, which is an extremely useful life skill. In Shipping, no one is going to respect your opinion or even understand it if you have terrible grammar and spelling and can't logically explain an idea.

artistic skills- A lot of Shippers also draw fanart, which can develop thier artistic perspective. Maybe not very useful in real life unless you plan to become a professional artist, but still a nice skill to have.

logical thinking- The whole point of Shipping is analyzing the characters' behavoir and then comparing and arguing your theories with other people. One big complaint some people have about TV is that it's not interactive; you just sit back and stare at it without having to use your mind. But when you Ship, you're actually thinking and becoming involved. And believe me, it takes real intelligence to keep up with some of the complex debates that Shippers have about Shipping theories.

typing skills- Personally, I actually learned to type because of Shipping. Before I was a Shipper, I was one of those people who took about an hour to type a sentence. But once I started typing up huge debate posts and debating people over IM, my typing skills vastly improved because of all the practice it gave me, and now I type really fast.

html/web site design- I also learned to design websites because of Shipping. I never had the inspiration to make a website before I got all obsessed with Shipping, but now I know how to write my own raw html code and everything. This is a pretty good thing to know how to do in today's world, and some people can even make a career out of it.

responsibility- If you end up being one of the people who runs a Shipping club or website, it takes a lot of organizational skills and dedication and persistance to keep it running.

tolerance- In Shipping, you get the message pretty fast that it's not considered mature or acceptable to be mean and intolerant to someone just because they have different beliefs than you. I actually know a lot of people who, when they started out in Shipping, were very hateful towards anyone who thought differently than them. But once they actually got to KNOW the people who had different beliefs, and found out they were nice people, thier whole attitude changed. This is a VERY important life lesson, and I've actually seen people learn it through Shipping. Also, more specifically, Shipping can help people to become more tolerant of homosexuality. I know people who used to be homophobic, but thier outlook was changed because of Shipping. If I can help just one person in the world to become less prejudiced- and I know I have- then I feel all my time spent on Shipping has been well worth it.

culture- If you're Shipping for an anime, it's pretty hard to only have knowledge of the dub version, because hints for Ships have to appear in the Japanese version to be considered official. So lots of people end up learning about Japanese language and culture through Shipping.

language- Besides learning Japanese, I also know people from other countries who ended up improving thier English skills mainly because of Shipping, since they were always interacting and debating with English-speaking Shippers.

entertainment- Shipping is just fun! And yes, it is emotionally healthy for people to spend time on things that they just like and enjoy. Really, there's no difference between a person who's obsessed with Shipping and a person who's obsessed with football and has to watch every game; Shipping is simply less mainstream. Also, if you're one of the people who writes fanfics or draws fanart or makes websites, you're also entertaining others and bringing a little happiness to thier lives. It's good to have something in the world that you're just really passionate about and to share that with other people.

I know that most of these things can be learned without Shipping. I could have concievably learned to type or build websites without Shipping. But would I have? Probably not. Most people don't have the initiative to sit down and learn something just for the heck of it; they learn things when they actually have to use the skills for something they really want to do. So, if people can learn and/or practice all these useful skills, and also maybe learn some life lessons that they may not have had an opportunity to learn elsewhere, and do it all with something they truly enjoy and are having fun with...then what could possibly be wrong with that?