Social Media Promotes Social Responsibility

I have recently been evaluating the way that social media has changed my life.  One of the most profound differences that it has made in my life is that I am extremely more aware of who is capturing what and what they are doing with it.  What I mean by that is who is taking pictures of me, who is recording me on a video camera or an audio clip, and what am I talking about or doing during it.  Something I will never forget is sitting in an auditorium at SoCon07, Atlanta’s first social media conference, and Sherry Heyl saying “Everyone remember that the person sitting next to you with a computer in their lap is blogging and this entire event is being podcast, so anything you say or do can end up on the web”.  I never ran around being wild and doing crazy things because there wasn’t the possibility of it finding its’ way onto the web, I just find myself being even more cautious of it now.  Which brings me to my point.  Is this a feeling that is shared by many and if so what kind of impact has it made on society as a whole?  How amazing would it be if a drop in crimes rates could be contributed to social media practices or if people became more enviornmentally friendly because the fear of being caught on tape doing something horrible to the earth was substantial.  Are people held more accountable for their actions because the risk of getting caught and the whole world having access to it is greater? I sure would like to think so.