March 31, 2020 • 9 mins
Jennifer Ringley made history on April 3, 1996. At the time she was a junior attending Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. Like so many college kids, she wanted to use technology to share her life with friends, family, and strangers alike. This was years before social media and instragram, so Jenny had to get clever if she wanted to share what was going on in her life.
Without access to smartphones and constant internet connections, Jenny instead hooked up a webcam to her computer and set up a website that would update every 3 minutes with images taken from that webcam.
Without access to smartphones and constant internet connections, Jenny instead hooked up a webcam to her computer and set up a website that would update every 3 minutes with images taken from that webcam.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Up that freak kind invite the ground. You don't make us rip our think.
I set up a Mama's Frequency reformedInternet show. Hey, everybody,
(00:25):
welcome to Internet Freak Show. Today'sepisode is all about Jennifer Ringley. Jennifer
Ringley made history on April third,nineteen ninety six. At that time,
she was a junior attending Dickinson Collegein Pennsylvania. Like so many college kids,
she wanted to use technology to shareher life with her friends and her
family, and also some strangers.This was years before social media and sites
(00:50):
like Instagram, so Jenny had toget clever if she wanted to share what
was going on with her life withoutaccess to smartphones and constant internet connections,
Jenny instead hooked up a webcam toher computer and set up a website that
would update every three minutes with imagestaken from that webcam. The images were
grainy and low resolution, and atfirst they were just black and white,
(01:12):
but these restrictions didn't stop Jenny Camvisitors from enjoying Jenny's rather mundane world.
At this time, Jenny Cam wasa static webcam in a rather unremarkable dorm
room. Still, millions of peopletuned in to see what Jenny was up
to. In the early years,she'd get up to four million people visiting
her day to see the most recentimage. Jenny Cam wasn't always mundane,
(01:37):
though at times she'd performed strip teasesfor the camera. I have to admit
that I didn't ever watch Jenny Cam, and I have no way to prove
that my theory here, but Ireally suspect that most of her traffic was
waiting to see these sporadic strip showsrather than tuning into an otherwise completely boring
view of a typical dorm room.Jenny's goal was to provide a completely un
(02:00):
filtered and raw look at her lifewithout audio. To help spread her message,
she'd sometimes write notes on post atmessages and hold them up to the
camera. She'd masturbate and have sexon camera, but these were not pornographic
feeds. She didn't perform for thecamera. She just went about her day
in the usual way, just witha camera sitting there. Typically all you
(02:21):
saw was a sheet that was movingaround. She was vulnerable and an exhibitionist,
but not a porn star or acam girl in that sense. The
images that contain nudity were not explicitHowever, all this attention that Jenny received
wasn't always good. Hackers took overher side at one point and started sending
death threats, all because Jenny didn'ttake her their initial threats very seriously.
(02:47):
This was just a small setback inthe life of Jenny Cam, however,
and she was back to streaming prettyquickly after the hackers were done. About
a year after starting Jenny Cam,Jenny graduated college and she was forced to
move on from her dorm based livestreams. She moved to Washington, DC
and took the next logical steps inher live streams. She set up four
(03:08):
cameras around her home and she allowedviewers to switch between them. At this
point in her streaming career, shestarted charging for the quote good feeds.
Free users could still watch, ofcourse, but if you paid Jenny a
membership fee, you got those feedsthat refreshed more quickly. So now it's
(03:29):
nineteen ninety eight and her streaming career, and as a very early life streamer,
her Internet frame expanded to the realworld as well. Numerous news agencies,
magazines, and talk shows did featureson Jenny in the way that she
was leading the way in this newField. She even got a bit part
on the TV series Diagnosis Murder.She was a guest on Late Show with
(03:51):
David Letterman. She was featured onThe Today Show and World News Tonight.
She even hosted a very early internettalk show called Jenny Show. Jenny's exhibitionist
side had led to a good amountof fame and fortune for her. Her
audience watched as she moved on tobigger and better living spaces, and as
she took trips to glamorous destinations.But all this fame was not without its
(04:15):
downsides. Her viewers felt a specialconnection and bond with her, but that
did mean that some were also criticalof her choices. Some didn't like the
way she'd decorated her apartment, forexample, or the boyfriends she had,
or the friends that she made.On her live streaming journey, Jenny made
herself available to the users. Althoughmillions watched her every day, she wasn't
(04:38):
a typical famous person. She participatedin the community. She was accessible and
friendly. People didn't feel like theywere watching a stranger online. They felt
like they were participating in her life. In two thousand and three, PayPal
started cracking down with anti nudity andanti pornography rules and regulations. These new
(04:59):
rules meant that Jenny could no longercollect money for her feeds. Rather than
find a new solution for accepting payments, she instead shut her webcam down and
she never turned it on again.Jenny simply disappear from the Internet. For
the conclusion of this story, Pleasestay tuned after these words from our sponsors.
(05:24):
In the years that followed, peoplehave followed up with Jenny to see
if she's changed her mind about hersocial media blackout. So she's not completely
inaccessible. She's done some follow upinterviews throughout the years, where she assures
interviewers and the community at large thatshe is still not interested in revisiting her
exhibitionist years. She's not on socialmedia. She's gotten married to a man
(05:46):
with a very common last name,adding into the complexities of finding her in
her new life. She works asa programmer and seems to live a very
quiet life, and that's just theway she likes it. Some people have
called Jenny a trailblazer. Others callher a conceptual artist. I think she
was a visionary. She saw awebcam for sale in her college bookstore,
(06:09):
and she used that webcam to changethe Internet. At the time, her
competition in the webcam world was awebcam pointed at a fish tank and another
one pointed at a coffee pot.But she saw the potential to point that
camera at people instead and connect them, to let people into each other's lives.
Virtually, twenty four years later,every major platform offers options to stream
(06:33):
live. Facebook, Instagram, andYouTube offer life streamers the ability to broadcast
mundane or important parts of their livesonline and instantly. Some technology exists exclusively
to life stream cameras that clip toyour shirts to capture the special everyday moments.
You may have phones that allow streamingand receiving of those moments, and
(06:57):
I like to think that Jenny playeda role in getting technology and social media
where it is. While Jenny maynot fit into a typical internet freak show,
she isn't really a freak or atroll or a mystery. I like
to envision her as somebody that wouldlove working at a traditional freak show where
people can visit and observe and interactwith those on display. Jenny loves putting
(07:20):
herself out on display, and let'sface it, any of us who share
status updates tweet or post pictures onInstagram. Have a little bit of Jenny
in them too. Thank you forlistening to this episode of Internet Freak Show.
For more podcasts or if you wantto start your own podcast, please
check out the geek Nerdery podcasting networkat geek nerdery dot com. Please leave
(07:43):
me reviews on Apple podcasts, andthank you for those of you who have
already done that. It really doeshelp I get updates when you leave new
ones, so thank you. Ifyou want to reach out to me,
please do that via Twitter. I'mat Tim Watson. That's Tim w A
S. S O N. Andfinally, I'd like to take one second
to thank those of you helping outwith the current pandemic. That includes healthcare
(08:05):
workers, truckers, everyone who worksat grocery stores and restaurants, and even
those who are simply just staying hometo help flatten the curve. Stay safe
out there. Next episode, we'llbe talking about Captain Kutchie's key line pies.
Thanks everybody until next time. Untilnext time, stay free. De glergery
Up that freak kind invite the ground. You don't make us rip our think.
I set up a Mama's Frequency reformedInternet show. Hey, everybody,
(00:25):
welcome to Internet Freak Show. Today'sepisode is all about Jennifer Ringley. Jennifer
Ringley made history on April third,nineteen ninety six. At that time,
she was a junior attending Dickinson Collegein Pennsylvania. Like so many college kids,
she wanted to use technology to shareher life with her friends and her
family, and also some strangers.This was years before social media and sites
(00:50):
like Instagram, so Jenny had toget clever if she wanted to share what
was going on with her life withoutaccess to smartphones and constant internet connections,
Jenny instead hooked up a webcam toher computer and set up a website that
would update every three minutes with imagestaken from that webcam. The images were
grainy and low resolution, and atfirst they were just black and white,
(01:12):
but these restrictions didn't stop Jenny Camvisitors from enjoying Jenny's rather mundane world.
At this time, Jenny Cam wasa static webcam in a rather unremarkable dorm
room. Still, millions of peopletuned in to see what Jenny was up
to. In the early years,she'd get up to four million people visiting
her day to see the most recentimage. Jenny Cam wasn't always mundane,
(01:37):
though at times she'd performed strip teasesfor the camera. I have to admit
that I didn't ever watch Jenny Cam, and I have no way to prove
that my theory here, but Ireally suspect that most of her traffic was
waiting to see these sporadic strip showsrather than tuning into an otherwise completely boring
view of a typical dorm room.Jenny's goal was to provide a completely un
(02:00):
filtered and raw look at her lifewithout audio. To help spread her message,
she'd sometimes write notes on post atmessages and hold them up to the
camera. She'd masturbate and have sexon camera, but these were not pornographic
feeds. She didn't perform for thecamera. She just went about her day
in the usual way, just witha camera sitting there. Typically all you
(02:21):
saw was a sheet that was movingaround. She was vulnerable and an exhibitionist,
but not a porn star or acam girl in that sense. The
images that contain nudity were not explicitHowever, all this attention that Jenny received
wasn't always good. Hackers took overher side at one point and started sending
death threats, all because Jenny didn'ttake her their initial threats very seriously.
(02:47):
This was just a small setback inthe life of Jenny Cam, however,
and she was back to streaming prettyquickly after the hackers were done. About
a year after starting Jenny Cam,Jenny graduated college and she was forced to
move on from her dorm based livestreams. She moved to Washington, DC
and took the next logical steps inher live streams. She set up four
(03:08):
cameras around her home and she allowedviewers to switch between them. At this
point in her streaming career, shestarted charging for the quote good feeds.
Free users could still watch, ofcourse, but if you paid Jenny a
membership fee, you got those feedsthat refreshed more quickly. So now it's
(03:29):
nineteen ninety eight and her streaming career, and as a very early life streamer,
her Internet frame expanded to the realworld as well. Numerous news agencies,
magazines, and talk shows did featureson Jenny in the way that she
was leading the way in this newField. She even got a bit part
on the TV series Diagnosis Murder.She was a guest on Late Show with
(03:51):
David Letterman. She was featured onThe Today Show and World News Tonight.
She even hosted a very early internettalk show called Jenny Show. Jenny's exhibitionist
side had led to a good amountof fame and fortune for her. Her
audience watched as she moved on tobigger and better living spaces, and as
she took trips to glamorous destinations.But all this fame was not without its
(04:15):
downsides. Her viewers felt a specialconnection and bond with her, but that
did mean that some were also criticalof her choices. Some didn't like the
way she'd decorated her apartment, forexample, or the boyfriends she had,
or the friends that she made.On her live streaming journey, Jenny made
herself available to the users. Althoughmillions watched her every day, she wasn't
(04:38):
a typical famous person. She participatedin the community. She was accessible and
friendly. People didn't feel like theywere watching a stranger online. They felt
like they were participating in her life. In two thousand and three, PayPal
started cracking down with anti nudity andanti pornography rules and regulations. These new
(04:59):
rules meant that Jenny could no longercollect money for her feeds. Rather than
find a new solution for accepting payments, she instead shut her webcam down and
she never turned it on again.Jenny simply disappear from the Internet. For
the conclusion of this story, Pleasestay tuned after these words from our sponsors.
(05:24):
In the years that followed, peoplehave followed up with Jenny to see
if she's changed her mind about hersocial media blackout. So she's not completely
inaccessible. She's done some follow upinterviews throughout the years, where she assures
interviewers and the community at large thatshe is still not interested in revisiting her
exhibitionist years. She's not on socialmedia. She's gotten married to a man
(05:46):
with a very common last name,adding into the complexities of finding her in
her new life. She works asa programmer and seems to live a very
quiet life, and that's just theway she likes it. Some people have
called Jenny a trailblazer. Others callher a conceptual artist. I think she
was a visionary. She saw awebcam for sale in her college bookstore,
(06:09):
and she used that webcam to changethe Internet. At the time, her
competition in the webcam world was awebcam pointed at a fish tank and another
one pointed at a coffee pot.But she saw the potential to point that
camera at people instead and connect them, to let people into each other's lives.
Virtually, twenty four years later,every major platform offers options to stream
(06:33):
live. Facebook, Instagram, andYouTube offer life streamers the ability to broadcast
mundane or important parts of their livesonline and instantly. Some technology exists exclusively
to life stream cameras that clip toyour shirts to capture the special everyday moments.
You may have phones that allow streamingand receiving of those moments, and
(06:57):
I like to think that Jenny playeda role in getting technology and social media
where it is. While Jenny maynot fit into a typical internet freak show,
she isn't really a freak or atroll or a mystery. I like
to envision her as somebody that wouldlove working at a traditional freak show where
people can visit and observe and interactwith those on display. Jenny loves putting
(07:20):
herself out on display, and let'sface it, any of us who share
status updates tweet or post pictures onInstagram. Have a little bit of Jenny
in them too. Thank you forlistening to this episode of Internet Freak Show.
For more podcasts or if you wantto start your own podcast, please
check out the geek Nerdery podcasting networkat geek nerdery dot com. Please leave
(07:43):
me reviews on Apple podcasts, andthank you for those of you who have
already done that. It really doeshelp I get updates when you leave new
ones, so thank you. Ifyou want to reach out to me,
please do that via Twitter. I'mat Tim Watson. That's Tim w A
S. S O N. Andfinally, I'd like to take one second
to thank those of you helping outwith the current pandemic. That includes healthcare
(08:05):
workers, truckers, everyone who worksat grocery stores and restaurants, and even
those who are simply just staying hometo help flatten the curve. Stay safe
out there. Next episode, we'llbe talking about Captain Kutchie's key line pies.
Thanks everybody until next time. Untilnext time, stay free. De glergery
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