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I think sharing original content is seen as egocentric, as you're the only party involved, and sharing content from someone else is seen as selfless. Originally, that might have been the case: why would you share an article written by someone else unless you're really convinced it was important to the community? But Reddit introduced the karma system: now, when you submit non-OC, you get some benefit out of it too. Granted, it's only imaginary internet points, but enough people care about it to make it work. When you submit OC, you're getting all the attention, pageviews and karma. You can't have your cake and eat it too.