Um my shifts are rare but most common are mental shifts. I have never experienced phantom shift. So when I am shifted I want to do more animalistic sound such as meowing, howling, growling. I am more primal and I often want to cuddle or do playfull fights. Also I became more animalistic in basic behaviour. That means I will growl or hiss when somebody is threating me or my friends, or I will be whining when I am scared. Also I like to tilt my head and listwn to sounds and body language. Because I dont wxperience strong shifts and I am always lil shifted it is hard to tell. It is pretty much like ypour whole mind suddenly switch and my instincts are sharper bc I am more fo used on it. I will start thinking just slightly differently that humans. Just like wilf. Hope it helped.

for me most of my shifts are phantom shifts and it kinda just feels like...umm...idrk, like kinda feeling like you have a part of your body that isn't there, and I can like feel it move and stuff but ik its not really there so it's wierd, I also don't know if this is a shift but I do tend to jump around and play in a more animalistic way, like if I'm alone in my room or outside with my neighbors dog then I'll run with her or also like just other stuff like that, idk how to explain a lot of it, I'm sorry

I was in a discussion akin to this on the werelist recently. There, they'd been called "fourth wave" therians. I had a bit to say on the topic, and I still do. Below is my original reply from the werelist, edited a bit for clarity.

Quote: In all the conversations around the state of the community, I feel that we are forgetting to look at the state of the internet as a whole. When I look at what forms of connection are easily available, it's no wonder that the community has become what it is.

Fourth wave [tiktok] therians exist mostly on youtube, instagram, and tiktok. While nuance and the like can be absent in any form of communication, these platforms simply aren't built for it at all. Short-form content thrives off of quick clicks and rapid swiping. You can post all the introspection on those sites you want, but unless it generates easy ad revenue, it might as well not exist at all. This leads to all the posts and conversations that get shared to be ankle-deep at best, ergo that's what the uninformed and uninitiated make the community out to be. You may have the occasional account that gets attention for sharing real experiences, but it's a rarity. We know that social media is predatory and that children are very susceptible to it. There aren't a ton of stand-alone websites like this anymore because of how pervasive algorithm-based platforms have become.

Short-form content has rotted brains to the point where long-form content such as forums and essays cant hold attention. Then it bleeds over into other platforms like Reddit. I could easily write forever about how this probably has a lot to do with capitalism and anti-intellectualism.

Do people need to be aware of the community they're joining before they join it? Absolutely. Should we encourage positive change? Of course. There are a lot of issues that come with children and other uninformed folks joining the community en mass and there always has been. I just think we should be more aware that the environment and framework that these new communities are forming under are inherently hostile to the nuanced conversations that create good community. Growth should always be encouraged, but sometimes the soil you're planted in is pretty nasty.

I find it shallow and a bit dishonest to blame children for the issues within the new community. Most of the time, they are completely unaware that a much deeper and richer community lurks right under the surface, and tiktoks endless desire for ad revenue and attention isn't going to spur them onto these deeper conversations, it's just going to keep them on the app.

Ultimately, I think the hype will die out in time. The community will adapt, and those who turned out to be "real" will stick around and contribute. Best thing we can do is gently educate and not shame them.

Seriously, why can't people just admit that they WANT to be Therian? What's the point of acting and lying to everyone else and yourself? Just make it clear that you know you are human and that you are a Quadrobist or Otherpaw. The fundamental difference is that you can CHOOSE to be Otherpaw, you can CHOOSE to be a Quadrobist, but you can't CHOOSE to be a Therian.

Even I respect this difference. I don't fake-claim being Therian just because I want to be 'mainstream' and 'accepted in a community' although I've seriously wanted to. Instead, I was honest and I was still kindly accepted into this community.

There's no shame in being different from the mainstream culture, and Therianthropy certainly should not be a mainstream culture just because people find it really cool. Those who base their life around being socially-accepted and get all their energy from other people's attention are seriously miserable. That is one thing I never understood and never will.

But the really problematic thing is that there's literally no way to day that someone isn't a Therian. It's all in someone's mind, there's nothing physical or tangible that can be used as proof.

So anyways, those were some of my really jumbled-up thoughts about fake-claiming Therianthropy and following this mainstream TikTok and Insta aesthetic. I don't think my paragraphs were well organized but I hope my main ideas and arguments were well expressed.

I think micro-labels are okay with the caveat that they are something that is actively used and built upon, and something that doesn't have its linguistic niche already filled (as in isn't a term with a definition that is functionally identical to a pre-existing and more widely used term). If someone develops a niche term to describe an identity or experience where none currently exist and then they or others go on to write essays and explain the term in-depth and actually regularly use it, I think that's great and extremely useful for spurring on new discussions, frameworks, and vocabulary.

My problem with micro-labels is when they're coined as purely hypothetical words, never actually seeing any use or further discussion. Those make communication much more confusing.

(2025-11-26 20:02)FernFox Wrote:  (Clarification: when I say microlabels, I'm thinking of those that divide therianthropy or try to encompass a specific, sometimes contradictory, experience: such as cambitherian, otherpaw, holothere, faunalune, etc)

I actually used to be a physical therian/holothere defender when I used to be on theriantok. Someone explained the definition to me as ,,since I’m nonhuman and this body belongs to me, the body is also nonhuman” and it made sense to me. Though now when I think about it I could say the same about myself since it’s not another type of identity, it’s just a philosophical idea tied to therianthropy so the separate label is basically pointless. The term holothere creates an even greater division in the therian community than ,,physical therian” did and tbh I kinda feel like it was created just for the sake of being unique and ,,more animal” than the regular therians. I might be overthinking this though.
Also I recently saw a video on TikTok where someone said they are a physical therian and explained the term as ,,feeling their therianthropy in their body by getting phantom feelings and experiencing animalistic behaviors” and idek what they mean atp since that’s not even a philosophical idea anymore, it’s just 100% regular therianthropy

(2025-11-26 23:13)Thorn Wrote:  

(2025-11-26 20:02)FernFox Wrote:  (Clarification: when I say microlabels, I'm thinking of those that divide therianthropy or try to encompass a specific, sometimes contradictory, experience: such as cambitherian, otherpaw, holothere, faunalune, etc)

I don't care much for otherpaws, but I am just really glad people finally felt the need to make a distinct definition for liking to dress up as an animal and doing quadrobics, without labeling it "therian". And to make it clear it is NOT an alterhuman experience. Before the otherpaw term, it was all therian, and this was just really harmful for the representation of the community.

I feel the same. Otherpaws are specifically animal cosplayers and if I were one I’d also like a term that separates me from cosplayers that dress up as characters from games or movies instead.
I agree with Fern that the term sounds too similar to otherkin though and it still might create confusion.

(2025-11-26 20:02)FernFox Wrote:  I think microlabels just serve to divide the community and (ironically) set up barriers to understanding. More often, I see microlabels created because individuals want to 'coin' something to make them feel important, rather than because it's actually useful to the community.

Same. I feel like some people are just collecting those microlabels as some kind of collectible badges, the more you have the cooler you are.
In some communities I often see people asking for a label for their experience cause they couldn’t find one that describes it themselves. But like, if you couldn’t find the label yourself what is the point of using it after someone tells you it exists (and about 5 people know about it in total)?
I’ve also seen people for example asking for a label for identifying as I think two coat colors of the same species (domestic cat). But like that’s the same species, why would it have a separate label if that’s just how you view yourself and not like two separate theriotypes of yours? Idk I don’t get it.

I think this is one of the most believable theories around the internet. Most Therians certainly have some type of neurological or psychological flaw or struggle that cause them to feel out of place. As an Otherpaw and doubting Therian, I am pretty sure I have Autism, which somehow makes my social life much harder. Maybe because I suffer of such conditions, I don't feel comfortable with myself and I dislike myself for who I am. I believe that this is one of the main factors that affect how I experience Alterhumanity.

Lables have their uses and do help explain experances. Yet when someone names every tiny detail it does seem excessive.
What gets my ruff up is when people creat a lable out of thin air which they think only they can use. Its completely unnecessary and lacks the point of something being named.

(2025-11-26 23:13)Thorn Wrote:  I must say, I find that otherpaw isn't a microlabel. If anything, the term has cleared up and prevent a LOT of further miscommunication on social media about what therians are and aren't. I don't care much for otherpaws, but I am just really glad people finally felt the need to make a distinct definition for liking to dress up as an animal and doing quadrobics, without labeling it "therian". Before the otherpaw term, it was all therian, and this was just really harmful for the representation of the community.

And so with that it does exactly what a label should do: make someone's experience/hobby clear with one word. Instead of someone saying they're a therian and it still being vague because they could just refer to liking quads, it's instantly clear that they don't actually identify as an animalistic being. I generally also find it more respectful to the community and its history to have that difference recognized.

Surely, the term hasn't settled in/around all of the community, but I think it's worth endorsing it for that exact reason.

(You're right in that it's probably not a microlabel, so it's slightly off-topic, but I do want to address that since I did bring it up...)

I've actually shared that same opinion (mostly through discussions in discord), but with a caveat:
I like that they have created a label that separates it from therianthropy, thus lessening therianthropy/otherkin from being misappropriated. But what I don't like about it is how the word is formulated with the intention of making it 'fit in' to the alterhuman community.

The way it's presented makes it sound like an offshoot of the otherkin community (prefix other-, likening it to otherkin, and suffix -paw, random and non-descriptive). It goes along with my chief complaint that these labels aren't intelligible, and without googling it, it's entirely unclear what it's meant to represent.

I guess we can't be choosers since we didn't make it, but if creating a label for animal cosplay was a necessity, I wish that a different term had caught on. Quadrobist was already right there.
Maybe I'm also just picky with linguistics.

- Fern