The Great Rewiring: How Smartphones Hijacked Your Brain – And What You Can Do About It

What if I told you that the greatest threat to your mental health wasn’t trauma, politics, or even disease… but the very device in your pocket?

On this mind-bending episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast, we sit down with Matthew Mattera, former military cognitive warfare strategist and author of the upcoming book, The Great Rewiring, to uncover how 2007 marked the beginning of a silent war—one fought not with bullets, but with bytes.

The Silent Shift No One Saw Coming

2007 wasn't just the year the iPhone launched—it was the moment our brains began to rewire. Matthew Mattera explains how the smartphone didn't just change communication—it outsourced cognition, hijacked neurochemistry, and launched the first mass experiment in digital dependency.

This wasn’t a harmless upgrade in convenience. It was a paradigm shift that altered how youth and adults alike perceive reality. And we’re only now beginning to understand the long-term cost.

Cognitive Warfare: Not Just a Metaphor

With a background in psychological and information operations, Mattera breaks down how adversarial nations and mega-tech companies alike use dopamine loops, behavioral reinforcement, and targeted disinformation to destabilize society from the inside out.

“These apps aren't tools—they’re weapon systems,” says Mattera. “They were designed to exploit human psychology. And they’re winning.”

From TikTok algorithms triggering emotional volatility to social media cultivating anxiety, validation addiction, and anti-social behavior, this isn’t about screen time anymore. It’s about cultural collapse through cognitive decline.

What’s the Damage? And Can It Be Undone?

We’re seeing spikes in suicide rates, attention fragility, and a generation that confuses curated online personas for truth. But as Mattera shares his personal story of loss and healing, he reminds us that neuroplasticity is still on our side.

“If we were rewired once, we can rewire again—this time with intention.”

His solution? The Great Unplugging:
 

• Hard boundaries with devices

• Bringing back tactile, real-world engagement (like building Legos with his kids)

• Rekindling the pre-2007 default settings of human connection, movement, presence, and storytelling

• Becoming the governor of your mind, not a passive consumer of curated reality

The Firehose of Disinformation

This episode doesn’t shy away from the dark underbelly of modern tech:
 

• How the weaponized architecture of apps plays on primal brain loops

• The rise of disinformation as digital propaganda

• Why "truth" is no longer objective, but instead filtered through algorithmic echo chambers
   

We’ve been fed an informational diet that’s the cognitive equivalent of fast food—cheap, addictive, and culturally corrosive. And like junk food, the results are showing: lower resilience, higher anxiety, disconnection from self and others.

So, What Can We Do?

It starts with awareness, but it ends with action. Mattera gives us the roadmap:
 

• Treat your mind like a sensitive facility—guard it

• Establish visible “no-phone” zones and times

• Prioritize analog activities: storytelling, walking, drawing, conversation

• Teach kids (and adults) the difference between digital stimulation and real joy

This episode is more than a conversation—it’s a wake-up call.
Whether you’re a parent, a practitioner, or just a human being trying to stay sane in a digital world, you need to hear this.

🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch the full episode on YouTube