In 1996, a college student pointed a webcam at her dorm room and quietly invented the idea of broadcasting your whole life online.

1996

Jennifer Ringley's JenniCam uploaded a new still image every few minutes, day and night, unedited — a stark contrast to the era's other famous webcams, which just pointed at coffee pots or fish tanks. It reportedly drew millions of visitors a day at its peak and ran for seven years, raising early questions about privacy and internet fame that would only get more relevant as social media made everyone a broadcaster.