Distorted

Ultra-Processed Feeds, Splintered Worlds and How the Internet Broke Reality

The world is hooked on ultra-processed feeds – engineered diets of outrage, falsehood and distraction that are reshaping how we think and what we believe. And like ultra-processed food, they are making us sick – eroding trust, fuelling tribalism and loosening our grip on truth.

Seb Butcher is a technology lawyer and former advisor to some of the world’s largest companies. In Distorted, he delivers an eye-opening account of how the modern internet is distorting reality itself. Drawing on behavioural science, technology, politics and culture, Butcher reveals the forces behind this distortion – from our own biases to technology addiction, algorithms and generative AI – and why we are splintering into increasingly separate, incompatible worlds.

Clear-eyed, rigorous and deeply human, Distorted is a call to reclaim re