This paper proposes an information-theoretic framework for understanding why modern digital environments increasingly produce experiences of unreality, fragmentation, and meaning loss. It models cognition as a compression process operating under entropy constraints, where subjective coherence depends on the mind’s ability to reduce high-dimensional experience into stable internal representations. Drift emerges when environmental entropy outpaces cognitive compression capacity, degrading fidelity and destabilizing perception, identity, and sense-making. The framework integrates insights from information theory, predictive processing, and media theory to explain contemporary phenomena such as attention fragmentation, synthetic media effects, and AI-mediated cognitive overload.
