The source of all this conflict and strife can all be traced to a little machine we all carry in our pockets that encourages us to tune out those around us and tune in to our own little worlds. Cell phones are narcissism machines.

Everybody laments the decline of newspapers, especially among the young. All kinds of reasons are assigned to this lamentable trend, including busy lives, online content and environmental consciousness.

But news stories are almost always about other people -- you know, the kind of people narcissists don't care about. Overall, people are reading a lot more. But they're reading content that's "relevant" -- i.e. about me or that news can benefit me in some way. When there's something going on about me and my peer group, who cares about Somalia?

Could the decline in newspaper subscriptions be caused in part by the fact that we're becoming too narcissistic for news?