One thing people want is to be able to carry camera phones and take pictures of their surroundings.

Is it what people really want, or just something that was made easy by latest tech and everyone jumping on it as a fad? You think we'll be snapping constantly and adding retro filters in 2025?

And even if that's so, do they also want to have those photos tagged, their friends face-recognized, and everything ending up searchable online?

Looks more like what Google, FB etc wants -- to collect even more data for ads and stuff.

I think the empirical evidence is quite clear that people want to have cameras and use them to take photos of their surroundings. They've been doing it for over a hundred years (Kodak founded in 1888), since well before they could add retro filters to those photos. Retro filters may or may not be a fad, but camera phones are not.

>They've been doing it for over a hundred years (Kodak founded in 1888), since well before they could add retro filters to those photos.

Not in any significant numbers, and mainly when being tourists.

Sure. People have been doing something for a hundred years, and they do it more now that it's easier, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll keep doing it at the increased rate.

But I think we're at the point where if you say "social norms should should be shaped around what people actually want", the onus is on you to show that people don't "actually want" to have cameras and use them.

Do people want to actually include others who don't want to be photographed in their photos, or do they just not want to ask everyone they photograph whether they should be permitted to?

I think that partly depends on the alternative. If it's a choice between "take photos including people who don't want to be photographed" and "don't take photos", I think a lot of people will take the first. If there's an option of "take photos, and people who don't want to be photographed can bugger off, just don't inconvenience me", I think a lot of people will happily take that one.