Its good to know to shred, actually I recomend to learn how to shred. Any guitarist should know how to do basic sweeps, legato runs, and alternate pick. It always adds spice in your playing.

Yet, that doesnt mean you have to abuse it and call youself a shredder.

There has been alot of discussing about this issue and alot of people bag people about shredding. I dont blame them, because sometimes,shredding does get redundent. But learning how to play fast is nothing bad, infact its always good to learn new things.

Therefore, shredding itself is nothing to be frowned upon, but rather encouraged. But alot of people may abuse it and subsitute it for other aspects of guitar which causes heat and contraversy.