As someone who likes to express myself, and who values hearing others express themselves, I have become scared to participate.

Not because I might get canceled.

I am scared of taking part in a system that produces & distributes what I understand as ultra-processed information.

Lack of access to calories has been, and remains, the primary problem with global food systems.

But for the first time another major problem is too *many* calories, consumed in excess, resulting in poor health.

I think the same dynamic now characterizes our information systems.

Like ultra-processed food, ultra-processed information is ubiquitous, cheap, formulated for compulsive consumption, and dangerous in large quantities.

Unlike ultra-processed food, which is produced *by* companies *for* us, ultra-processed food is produced collectively.

We all make, share, and consume it. The phones in our pockets and the computers on our desks are simultaneously factories, distribution centers, and vending machines. It is both corporate and grassroots.

As a consequence, ultra-processed information is even more difficult to resist than ultra-processed food, because the reward comes from the pleasure of consuming the information *and* the pleasure of being praised for making and sharing it.

There are three essential elements of ultra-processed information, like the fat, salt, and sugar of highly palatable food:

Simplification
Demonization
Belonging

Simplification reduces complicated realities into easy labels, slogans, and measurements.

Pro-life/pro-choice
“I believe in science”
Strong economy = good economy

Demonization frames reality in terms of mythic confrontations between good and evil. Heroes and villains. Saints and sinners.

But the emphasis is primarily on identifying evil, villains, and sinners.

Belonging turns information into a prerequisite for community. Facts and moral truths are not just facts and moral truths. They are membership credentials—or grounds for exclusion.

There is a stick along with the carrot: when you are not being rewarded, you are being punished.

These three elements—simplification, demonization, and belonging— can be combined into many forms: bumper stickers, video clips, articles, tweets, Facebook posts, books, podcasts, lectures.

There is no audience that does not have its own form of ultra-processed information.

It is *not* unique to specific ideologies.

Asserting that you and those who agree with you don’t consume it or produce it is, in itself, a form of ultra-processed information.

As a producer and a consumer, I have believed this and asserted this myself.

Even when information isn't ultra-processed—when it does not simplify, demonize, or regulate our sense of belonging—it is still raw material ready for processing.

The nuanced speech becomes a single sound bite. The book, a quote. The scientific study, a context-free statistic.

Like ultra-processed food, ultra-processed information is not bad in itself. It is a dose-dependent poison.

But in our information ecosystem, it will necessarily be over-consumed. Individuals and communities will get sick. Old diseases will get worse. New diseases will emerge.

Our capacity for uncertainty might disappear.

Cause and effect will always be easy to identify. Every problem will have a clear, simple answer.

The inability to identify a cause or give clear, simple answers will be seen as a sign of weakness, not honesty.

This is frightening.

There might be a collapse of our collective ability to agree on important truths.

No way for *all of us* to know what to believe about the next pandemic.

No way for us to agree on what happened to Martin Gugino.

No way to agree on who won the election.

This is frightening.

There are no easy fixes for this emerging crisis.

But I have come to believe that trying to fix it with more ultra-processed information—or regular information that ends up getting processed—is like trying to fix our food system with healthy energy bars.

We face pressing problems. Ultra-processed information may seem unimportant. But we've made the mistake of ignoring seemingly marginal problems before.

If we don't address the situation it will get worse—and it is already very bad.

I have been complicit. Hopefully no longer. /x