A Filtered Reality

Filtered Reality: How the Internet Rewired Self-Expression is a provocative exploration of how social media has transformed identity, self-worth, and authenticity in the digital age. From the early days of MySpace and Tumblr to the algorithm-driven worlds of Instagram, TikTok, and AI influencers, this book unpacks the hidden forces shaping how we present ourselves online-and how they've altered the way we see ourselves in real life. Blending cultural critique, psychology, and compelling storytelling, Filtered Reality examines how self-expression has shifted from something personal and organic to something optimized, performative, and shaped by engagement metrics. It explores questions like: Is self-expression still authentic when it's curated for an audience? What happens when influencers, brands, and even AI personalities start shaping identity more than real-life relationships? Can we ever truly be "real" in a space designed for performance? With deep insights into digital culture, the rise of AI-generated personas, and the growing pushback against social media perfection, Filtered Reality challenges readers to rethink their relationship with the internet. In a world where authenticity has become a commodity, this book is an urgent call to reclaim what it means to be human. For fans of: Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror, Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing, and Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism.

About the Author :
B.B. Freer was born beneath the heavy, unbroken silence of a town that no longer exists on any map. It was the kind of place that swallowed its own stories, where the forests grew too thick, the nights stretched too long, and the shadows moved when no one was looking. Freer began writing young, scrawling stories in the margins of borrowed books, carving half-formed ideas into desks, whispering them to the dark when no one else would listen. But somewhere along the way, the stories stopped being fiction. The things in the pages looked back. The words became doors, and Freer-curious, reckless, unafraid-walked through them. Now, the work is no longer about invention, but translation. The things that have no names, the voices that speak in dreams, the hunger that lingers just beyond the veil-they demand to be written. Freer writes because the alternative is letting the stories fester. Freer writes because the night is watching. And something must answer.