By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

KEY WEST, Fla. — Ah, Spring Break, with its copious debauchery, its spontaneous bouts of breast-baring, Jager bombing and après-binge vomit.
In this era of “Jersey Shore” antics and “Girls Gone Wild,” where bikini tops vanish like unattended wallets, it would seem natural to assume that this generation of college student has outdone the spring break hordes of decades past on the carousal meter.

But today’s spring breakers — at least some of them — say they have been tamed, in part, not by parents or colleges or the fed-up cities they invade, but by the hand-held gizmos they hold dearest and the fear of being betrayed by an unsavory, unsanctioned photo or video popping up on Facebook or YouTube.

Late one March evening at Rick’s Bar on rum-soaked Duval Street, college students alternated Jell-O shots with iPhone shots.

“We are very, very reserved,” said Mia Klein, 22, a University of Connecticut senior from Amityville, N.Y., who stood around a table at Rick’s with friends and cups of beer. “You don’t want to have to defend yourself later, so you don’t do it.” The “it” being get sloppy, word-slurring drunk in an unvetted crowd.

“People do regret it later,” chimed in her friend and sorority sister Kelsey Tynik, who had just finished checking e-mail amid the screaming house music.

To help keep students in check, college Web sites, magazines and blogs post dos and don’ts for spring break. Chief among them is the peril that comes with uninhibited spring break celebrations getting on the Internet and doing long-term damage. “Don’t lower your standards or let your judgment be impeded just because you’re in a different time zone,” one Web site cautioned.

Well known for its tolerance, ocean breezes and an atmosphere in some parts of town that allows strolling with beer, Key West has been a spring break hot spot for two decades. Hard-charging drinkers abound in Key West lore: Ernest Hemingway frequented the original Sloppy Joe’s owned by his friend, Captain Tony, a gun-running gambler and unrepentant ladies man. Jimmy Buffett has made millions riffing on the city’s penchant for boozing and basking.

But spring break here — a city that tends to attract slightly more moneyed students who can afford the relatively steep hotel prices — has been Facebooked into greater respectability. It is a trend that veteran spring breakers here say is true of spring break in general.

Wildness will always prevail in some places and among some students; there are plenty of commemorative examples of excess floating around the Web. In fact, under-age students eager to skirt the 21-and-over drinking law travel out of the country to Cancun, the Bahamas or Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, just so they can drink with impunity. A whole slice of the travel industry now hauls spring breakers to foreign destinations, organizes their itineraries and sends representatives in case something goes wrong.

Even bartenders here have noticed a certain taming of the spring break crew.

“They are very prudish,” said Margaret Donnelly, 28, a bartender at Tattoos and Scars who has lived in Key West for four years and remembers her own student antics “They are so afraid everyone is going to take their picture and put it online. Ten years ago people were doing filthy, filthy things, but it wasn’t posted on Facebook.”

By way of example, Ms. Donnelly said, there are far fewer wet T-shirt contests — a spring break mainstay — in town today. By her count, Tattoos and Scars is the only bar that offers one, and only once a week.

Over at Sloppy Joe’s, another bartender, Ashley McCauley, said the students, who mingle with families and bikers here, are better behaved, although she has no idea why. “They are more polite and they wait their turn,” she said, with a grin. “One in 10 still acts like spring breakers, but it’s definitely calmer than when I was on spring break in 2004.”

Maybe everyone just remembers being wild and crazy back in the day, the same way that nostalgia can tinge their other memories. Or not.

Camrea Sawyer, 22, a senior at Athens Technical College, was heading to the beach with her University of Georgia friends to chill and tan her already sun-crisped body. Keenly aware of the damage a misplaced, mistimed cellphone photo or video can do, she said she is careful.

“At the beach yesterday, I would put my beer can down, out of the picture every time,” Ms. Sawyer said. “I do worry about Facebook. I just know I need a job eventually.”

Asked if she would ever do anything some could view as inappropriate, like join a wet T-shirt contest, she said, “No way. I would never do that because everybody has phones these days.”

Her friend Allen Stein, 26, a recent Auburn University graduate who joined the group for spring break, says he is looking for a job and knows that employers scour the Web for clues to a person’s character.

“That’s the first thing they check,” he said.

With instant infamy a screenshot away, some students take the opposite tack: They get wilder in the hope of getting noticed.

“Some want people to know how wasted they got,” said Sarah Bell, 20, a University of North Florida student, standing at Rick’s with a mob of friends. “They want people to know they had a good time.”

What about Ms. Bell? Does she fit into that category?

“Oh, no,” she recoiled. “I’m friends with my mom on Facebook.”