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

The world is hooked on Ultra-Processed Feeds - engineered diets of outrage, falsehoods and distraction that are reshaping how we think and what we believe. The result is an unhealthy society marked by deepening division and tribalism, and the erosion of truth, tolerance and trust.

Seb Butcher is a technology lawyer and former advisor to some of the world's largest companies. In Distorted, he delivers a devastating account of how digital culture - shaped by Big Tech, social media and AI - is distorting reality itself. Drawing on behavioural science, technology, politics and culture, he explains the forces behind this transformation - from our own biases to technology addiction, algorithms, and generative AI - and why we are splintering into increasingly separate, incompatible worlds.

Clear-eyed and rigorous, Distorted also makes the case for Reclaiming Reality - a framework that confronts not only our own online habits, but the broader questions of institutional trust and technology ethics. As we enter a new era shaped by AI and growing socio-political tensions, Seb Butcher offers a thoughtful and practical path toward rebuilding truth, trust and human connection in an increasingly fractured world. It isn't too late to change course - but we must act now.