The University of California – San Diego is academic home to some of the country’s best and brightest young scientists.

One of its students, Angel Au-Yeung, has some serious concerns about a new innovation that is about to hit the market: Google Glass.

With the advent of Google Glass — a pair of Cyclops-looking spectacles with a wearable computer screen infused into the lenses — Google manages to further our generation’s self-obsessed vices more so than smartphones have ever done before.

The innovative device will blur the line between the virtual world and the physical world, effectively turning wearers’ experiences and sensations into sharable clips. With its hands-free mobility and voice control, users can now merely say, “Ok glass, record now,” and the gadget will record whatever their eyes see. “Ok gadget, post on Facebook,” and Google Glass will post the video of the past five seconds for the world. Camera, video recorder, instant messenger, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ Hangouts — these are but a few of the gadget’s numerous functions that allow for extreme documentation of the most mundane, daily events. These features feed into young adults’ obsession and semi-delusional mindset that impulses them to be connected online at all times.

The National Institute of Health found in a criminalizing 2008 study that individuals in their 20s are three times as likely than older generations to harbor narcissistic personality disorder, with 58 percent more college students scoring higher on the narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982. The report defines the disorder as a “pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, interpersonal exploitiveness and lack of empathy.” These qualities are well represented in a typical young adult’s Facebook newsfeed where private matters are made public to garner attention and “likes” from friends and acquaintances.

Those using Google Glass run the risk of succumbing to the observer effect, a phenomenon in experimental research in which the mere knowledge of being observed can alter how one acts. The same effect must be considered if Google Glass becomes a mainstream commodity. The observer bias already pervades social interactions today: People spend more time at social functions recording videos and taking selfies with their friends than any other generation. And with social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, in which a user’s worth and credibility are only measured in the currency of likes, friends and followers, the pressure to capture the perfect shot in the perfect light and angle trumps all else… ..

Back in the early years of middle school, camera phones roused cries of privacy concerns — and now, a mobile phone is perceived as inadequate if it does not include a camera lens. Google Glass may represent a step forward in computer technology, but it ultimately has negative social implications in the long term.