Yesterday's fears about carpal tunnel syndrome and cancer-causing cell phones give way to today's concerns over Internet addiction, texting that causes car accidents and laptop-induced infertility.

While everyone's on the lookout for risks, such as a , or , something subtler and more pervasive may be happening. Mobile technology may be transforming us all into raving narcissists.

Narcissism, or narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), is a . Sufferers feel a constant need for admiration, and have trouble empathizing, relating to or caring about other people. People with NPD feel very self-important, that they are special and that their specialness can only be perceived by peers. Although they feel superior to others, they tend to be incredibly sensitive to criticism. According to the Mayo Clinic web site, NPD may be caused by .

In general, however, everyone goes through narcissistic phases in both childhood and teen years. Normally, we snap out of it when reality smacks us in the face at some point. People learn (often the hard way) to interact with and have consideration for other people. We learn that we can't get whatever we want whenever we want it. We develop thicker skin about criticism, and sometimes respond to it by striving to do better.