>cameras by themselves don't mean much

Couldn't disagree more. Years ago if you dropped your trunks at a beach and there were ~10 people around who didn't know you there there were virtually no potential consequences except a little embarrassment from a few total strangers (who you'd likely never see again) seeing you naked from a distance. With cameras your nudity is captured in HD from a distance and potentially distributed to the entire world, in perpetuity.

>but that's now starting to fade away as young people are aware one dumb moment can live on forever thanks to social media

Even if its true that shameful and/or embarrassing moments captured on film are less of a social stigma among young people (because they are so common now), that doesn't mean there isn't a massive difference today due to the ubiquitous presence of cameras. In my opinion this ever-present recording has significantly changed society and the way people behave - and not for the better.

On the positive side, cameras and social media are increasingly catching everything on the spectrum from anti-social behavior to crimes and providing consequences where there were never any before. You can't just trash a McDonalds, go on a racist tirade, or act belligerently in public without a good chance that someone's going to capture it and post it on social media. These are cases where "social cooling" is welcome.

Ubiquitous cameras are also slowly starting to allow the public to hold police and other public authorities accountable for actions they were previously totally unaccountable for.

>These are cases where "social cooling" is welcome.

Maybe. Some young (or not) person does something dumb one time maybe after getting a bit too intoxicated (and maybe even somewhat out of context) and a recording is available for an indefinite period of time at the top of Google searches of their name doesn't seem obviously always a good outcome.

There's arguably something to be said for having a common name. Or at least not having an unusual name that you nonetheless share with the wrong person.

I don't view social media justice as positively as you do. Even when it seems like the person really deserves it, those subreddits etc. that exist for no reason other than to gawk at terrible moments in other people's lives aren't doing anyone any favors. There are no limits on the length or severity or appropriateness of the punishment.

At the same time, the worst of society doesn't seem all that cool to me but it could just be unusual times.

Not just cameras. They're just one small part in the overall degradation of privacy. Constant surveillance _is_, unfortunately a reality. Dystopia right before our very eyes.

3 years ago if someone took a picture it wouldn’t be seen by anyone else (or very few)

Today it’s shared on the internet, not only seen by dozens of the photographers friends, but linked via face recognition to you even though you live the other side of the world and was on holiday.

The problem isn’t the camera, it’s the internet.

It's really the combination of cameras plus internet.