Long before you edited your personality for Facebook, shared your snappy witticisms on Twitter and sepia-toned your life on Instagram, there was Bebo.
For many of us, Bebo was our first taste of social networking. While it seemed to fall out of flavour fast, those late teen and early college years would have been very different without it.
Technically, Bebo is still alive, (go on – log in for old time’s sake), but it’s been hanging in there on life support for so long we might as well pay our respects now. It was good while it lasted Bebo, thanks for the memories. Here are 10 things about you that we’ll always remember fondly.
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Share the Luv?
In the early days of Bebo the hardest daily decision was who deserved your Luv for the day. Much like in real life, the amount of hearts you won over was indicative of popularity – so it was important that your profile attracted the Luv daily, and that you had more than your friends. Then you were allowed to share three Luvs a day, which made everything less special, and in hindsight was clearly the beginning of the end.
Top 16 Friends
The pain of this decision was so great that there is even a Facebook page with thousands of likes called ‘i remember how hard it was putting my top 16 bebo friends in order!’ Friends were gaged on how popular they were, how likely they were to place you in their top 16 in return, and how high they had ranked you. If one friend disappeared from a top sixteen overnight you knew that some serious shit had gone down – most likely over a three-way call on the house phone. Those things were a minefield.
The Other Half of Me
Marriages have been entered into with less thought by some, while others hooked up and dumped quicker than the page could refresh on dial-up. There was always one girl who gushed about her other half the second they’d shared their first sloppy kiss out the back of a teenage disco, then quietly dumped him three days later, only to repeat the pattern the following weekend. Best friends were always a better choice. Always.
Quizzes
What role did I play in my primary school nativity play? (Donkey). What’s the first album I say I bought? (Alanis Morissette). What’s the first album I actually bought? (Steps).
This is where over-sharing began.
About Me
Describing yourself through the movies and music you liked. Bebo suggested The Shawshank Redemption in that box, which is why it was the favourite movie of every second 15 year old girl in the country. Right after Dirty Dancing. ‘Happiest When’ was usually filled in with song lyrics. Because, you know, you were deep.
Whiteboard
There’s a reason Paint was the only thing you used the computer for when you were younger. It was mighty craic. So, when Bebo added a whiteboard for you to draw on your friends’ walls, all sorts of masterpieces were born.
Copy Photos?
The vast majority of content on the Internet is ‘curated’… aka stolen from elsewhere. Bebo is most likely where you began this practice. Sure why bother taking the camera out yourself when you had that handy little button to let you copy as many pictures as you like into your own album.
Bebo Skins
Were you a sexy devil? A pretty butterfly? A magical unicorn? All options when it came to choosing the theme for your profile. Then came the chance to create your own, bestowing instant street cred upon the one person in your class who actually knew their way around a computer and understood what a jpeg was. The legend.
Bebo Stunnahs/Girl Next Door
Duck face – it all started here. The Bebo Stunnahs were a special group of girls who shared every second of their early experiments with make up and dodgy ‘disco’ clothing online while stretching their pouts as far as humanly possible. Most craved attention from the various ‘Girl Next Door’ and ‘Bebo’s Next Top Model’ competitions. Imagine how gutted they’d be to find out that we all got those invitations… but Bebo hasn’t found the next Kate Moss just yet.
Creative spelling
There have been few greater threats to the English language than the advent of Bebo. We’re not sure how it crept in, but suddenly it was the best fun ever to InsErt RanDom CapItAl letters all over the shop and attempt phonetic spelling for every single word.
Ah, Gud Timez.
Bonus Mention – Random Sexy Chat
Private mails from people you’d never laid eyes on in your life, mad for a bit of sexy talk. Weirdly enough, almost always youths in London, which we can only conclude is a permanent hotbed of horny youngsters. Fair enough.
