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Mindaugas Balčiauskas

53 Posts From A Group Dedicated To Making Fun Of The “Urban Hell” Echo Chamber

Japan

When one hears the term “Urban Hell,” most of us envision horrible, gray sprawl, smog and an acute lack of any greenery in sight. At the same time, through an abundance of ill-informed memes and digital word of mouth, some folks start to believe that they actually know a lot about places they’ve never visited.

We’ve gathered some of the best posts from a group dedicated to making fun of the echo chamber that is the “Urban Hell” group. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments section down below.

#1 Horrible, Look At All This Concrete. This City Must Be Horrible To Live In

ArthRol:

Soviet architecture and urban planning is so bland and senseless. Like what is the purpose of that dumb circular thing???

420_E-SportsMasta:

A buy-here pay-here used car lot would look amazing instead of that colosseum.

wizard680:

Ok so it actually was pretty bad to live in. So bad that when the Romans made new cities, they used Rome as an example of how NOT to build a city
Edit: bad in the sense that they had no planning. Traffic was Huston level bad.

Image credits: Brendan765

#2 God I Hate American Urban Planning

moreVCAs:

What is this, a city for transistors?

cornmonger_:

Note the SDRAMs Stadium to the left.

Anon:

I think you’re confusing it with the old Qualcomm stadium.

Image credits: lukezicaro_spy

#3 Cancer On An Otherwise Compact, Walkable City

TheSamuil:

What's the deal with that green space? It makes me want to puke.

TheQuestionMaster8:

One of the few redeeming qualities of Cairo as a place to live in. The city has an overpopulation crisis, poor public transport and as a consequence, traffic is beyond insane, dust pollution as well as air pollution from the traffic is a major problem.

Image credits: _Yumm_

Forums on the internet founded upon topics like "Urban Hell" set out with a pretty clear agenda: to publish and discuss the downside of modern urban life, ranging from bleak architecture to overpopulation to soulless city planning. In the beginning, these kinds of sites can be enlightening, allowing people to vent, highlight real issues, and share perspectives from all over the world. But as time goes on, many of those groups tend to turn into echo chambers, where the conversation narrows and contrary views get drowned out.

Some of the reason for that has to do with online group dynamics. Most individuals head to places they already align with in terms of underlying concept, and algorithms also reinforce that by bringing forward content that fits within the existing tone of the group.

#4 Barcelona Mixes Soviet Blocks With American Car Dependant Infrastructure

420_E-SportsMasta:

Imagine how cool that would look if it were several 18 lane superhighways with cloverleaf ramps and combination Taco Bell/KFCs and “buy here pay here” used car dealerships inside the on/off ramps instead.

The-Archangel-Michea:

Real ones know that the current state of Barcelona is a far cry from the much better designed original plan. It was SO much nicer.

Image credits: reddit.com

#5 Literally Unlivable

SubnauticaFan3:

Literally the UK. Most places just seem unlivable because of the bad weather, the rare sunny day can really raise the mood.

Image credits: morl0v

#6 South Korea 👎🤮 North Korea 🫃🫃

average-alt:

See, some people talk about light pollution and some people do something about light pollution. Kim Jong-un, bless his heart 🥰

Benjamin_Stark:

The ship traffic off the coast of South Korea gives off more light than North Korea.

Image credits: OkAndEx

If a more nuanced perspective gets shared, such as pointing out the benefits of density, or reminding folks that cities also have strong cultural and social assets, the response is tepid at best, hostile at worst. This has a cumulative effect of stifling balanced dialogue and reinforcing content that caters to the mood of the moment, too often negativity.

#7 Japan, Random Railway 🤮 Japan, Anime 😍

SilentSpr:

It’s not random at all. Very well known spot for photos of trams with the sea as background. I believe there are animes with this location as a reference.

Image credits: Shiningc00

#8 Not A Single Tree In Sight. No Bike Infrastructure Whatsoever. Is This The European City They Keep Praising?

shumpitostick:

Venice is beautiful as a tourist destination but it's not a pleasant place to live in at all. Lacking in infrastructure, hard to get around, overpriced, no green spaces, hordes of tourists everywhere. Also, the city stinks.

Image credits: -hey_hey-heyhey-hey_

#9 Ughh Suburbs. Car Dependency Boat Dependency Most Streets Are Dead Ends

Brayden_1274628:

Mosquito season must be deadly.

ShaggyFOEE:

Well I'm walking to the store I'll see you guys in 6 hours...

Image credits: Superleggera49

Then there's the psychological salve of validation. Whining about ugly concrete skyscrapers or shoebox apartments is therapeutic, but it's the spike of agreement, likes, comments, affirmations, that makes it addictive. People quickly learn that the surest way to get attention is to post things that reinforce the collective sense of outrage or despair. Nuance, context, or contrarian views just don't go viral as easily, as they don't resonate on the same emotional frequency.

#10 In Spirit Of Recent Trend:

Background_Cut_6325:

This is unironically a great example of how trees and vegetation can change how we feel about places.

Image credits: AnteChrist76

#11 Saw This Really Ugly And Run Down Building In Italy 🤢

kilqax:

So old smh why don't they put an office building or something in there
It lacks underground parking as well + no cyclist paths

Image credits: DeliciousWarning5019

#12 I Can't Believe That These Ugly Stone Buildings Are Still Standing, So Depressing

Other_Movie_5384:

There are no bike racks, ew.
Literally unliavable.

DarthRevan456:

Literally a concrete nightmare 😱

AndreaTwerk:

So disproportionate.

Image credits: reddit.com

As a result, the tone of the group becomes extreme. Instead of the healthy dose of criticism and praise, everything starts to shift to the negative. A moderately ugly building is dystopian, a crowded sidewalk is evidence of societal collapse, and a single bad instance of city planning is taken to be a universal rule. What begins as a forum deteriorates into more of a self-reinforcing cycle of frustration, with people competing to mention the worst possible examples.

#13 Repeating Buildings Scare Me

harryofbath:

Me: looks out window I hate my country's "architecture."

Image credits: Stuntmeg

#14 Caste System For Cities

QMechanicsVisionary:

Japan is actually so ugly. It's literally concrete hell, made even worse by the fact that the buildings are old and bland. I have no idea why it's so revered - at least from an aesthetic point of view.

Image credits: DrIndian_47

#15 Probably The Most Heartbreaking Trailcam Image Ever Seen

The-Legend-26:

No, he is clearly aware that the sea of light is constructed by human design over the last hundreds of years and that the rate at which this human society is growing will inevitably consume all available resources at the cost of the mountain lion's natural habitat.

Image credits: byrobot

One is the manner in which people utilize these groups as a platform for more abstract anxieties. A photo of a poorly designed intersection can set off not just a debate about city planning, but a general bemoaning of modern existence, capitalism, or inequality. Those concerns are undoubtedly valid, but when each posting is interpreted by the same lens, the group no longer remains about exploring urban spaces, but rather a collective venting area for all sorts of grievances.

#16 Istanbul, Turkey 🤢🤮 Istambolana, Spain ☀️🍉🌊😍😍

artin2007majidi:

I love how by looking at the interactions of r/urbanhell and r/urbanhellcirclejerk the entire philosophical history of mankind from mythos to enlightenment to modernism to postmodernism can be observed in a microcosm.

Image credits: mahirbr

#17 Are Japan Glazers Stupid?

Rechupe:

You can tell OP never walks.

Image credits: kind_stranger11

#18 Concrete Jungle:😡🤬 “Wait Guys No It’s Japan”: 😍😊

reidft:

The people who idolize Tokyo have never been there. It's literally just city, Japan. Except multiply the population and size. There's people everywhere, it takes forever to get anywhere (even with trains), it's all concrete unless you go to a park, everything is priced higher than elsewhere. Oh cool Weebtown and the red light district exist, it's still Not Great™.
Please don't send me back.

Image credits: kjbeats57

The echo chamber phenomenon does not mean that such groups are valueless. They draw attention to subjects that need to be debated and give people a feeling of belonging. However, when the environment becomes too biased, perception becomes skewed. Cities are complex, the ugly and beautiful stand together, but echo chambers force members to look at only one side of the equation. Ultimately, it can make the group more about the reaffirming of one story instead of helpful criticism.

#19 USA 🤢; La 😍😍

Edsel_B:

😂😂😂 To be fair, LA does have better public transportation than Altoona, PA. Plus the streets are thinner and there is actually a bit more density. It is also less flat in terms of the landscape. And the gas is actually not as bad as that sign either. LA is just ridiculously expensive in terms of housing and is way overhyped. It is also much more suburban than many other, denser cities on the East Coast. The public transit is also very mediocre in LA, but only for such a large city.

Image credits: Moist-Management-346

#20 Night In Chinese City 😡🤬🌚‎‍🏭 vs. Night In Japanese City 🥰😍🌕🌸

Polak_Janusz:

Parts of the internet really glaze Japan, its so annoying to talk about anything Japan does in good faith online because there are people who cant accept that their super kawaii >_< Country actually has a lot of problems and then there are people who overcorrect and paint it as a dystopia.

Image credits: Creative-Dawg

#21 I Am Conducting A Social Experiment

Professional_Rise148:

To be fair, Bethesda sucks.

Image credits: Swaxeman

In short, groups like "Urban Hell" devolve into echo chambers because human psychology, internet algorithms, and the fundamental desire for validation collude to prefer repetition to nuance. What begins as a forum to trade opinions turns into a chorus of agreement, in which disagreement is discordant and balance is drowned out in the din.