Many newbies to photo say that wideangles are "distorting" because they represent the world in a different way than we are accustomed to see, in the way that depth is strongly enhanced and parallel lines that aren't orthogonal to the optical axis of the lens seem to converge strongly. However this must be distinguised from true distortion which is noticed when straight lines of the subject are turned into curves. I explain that more in a recent post:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1616183

A miniature version is to be seen above.