10 things we secretly miss about Bebo
Long before Facebook and Instagram, we were 'sharing the Luv' over on Bebo
Remember Bebo? If you were a teenager in the mid-2000s, there’s a good chance it was your first taste of social media glory before Facebook made it uncool, Instagram made it filtered, and TikTok made it terrifying.
Bebo was a place where you could express your painfully awkward teenage self with all the glitter fonts, pixel hearts, and emo song lyrics your dial-up connection could handle. For many of us, Bebo was where friendships were cemented (or ruined), crushes were declared, and your mum accidentally left a comment that everyone could see.
Before we had curated grids and algorithms telling us what we liked, we had Bebo skins that shouted our personalities from our profile pages. It was clunky, chaotic, and utterly brilliant. It was a digital playground where we could show off our top mates, spam each other’s “Luv”, and post bulletins nobody read. In the days when your biggest worry was whether your crush would share their “Luv” back or leave you languishing at number seven in their Top 16, Bebo was king.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2013, and the site was taken offline in August of that year. Bebo relaunched in 2015 as a messagener app called Bebo Blab but shut down again after two years. Amazon bought the company in 2019, and in 2021, plans to relaunch the social network were announced. However, the reimagined Bebo failed to make it past beta-testing and was never launched publicly.
The all-Important ‘Top Friends’ list
Nothing said ‘I love you’ or ‘I secretly hate you now’ like shuffling your Top 16. One day, you were someone’s number one; the next, you were demoted to fourth for not replying fast enough. It was the original way to passive-aggressively ruin a friendship without saying a word.
Sharing the ‘Luv’
The daily ration of ‘Luv’ was gold dust. You only got three bits of Luv to give out each day, so you had to choose wisely. Would it be your best mate, your crush, or that random kid from maths who was suspiciously generous with theirs?
Cringe-inducing Bebo skins
Did you even exist if your profile wasn’t plastered with a garish My Chemical Romance skin or a sparkly quote about ‘living, laughing and loving’? Bonus points if it made the text completely unreadable.
The whiteboard
Before Snapchat doodles, there was the mighty Bebo whiteboard: a pixelated masterpiece where you’d scribble rude jokes, hearts, or something that was definitely not a drawing of anything inappropriate.
The bulletins nobody read
You’d post a chain bulletin about your favourite pizza toppings or answer 200 questions about your love life and music taste, then tag everyone you knew, only for nobody to read it because they were busy doing the exact same thing.
Profile songs
Your Bebo profile song was your entire personality. Picking a song that summed up your mood was serious business. Bonus points if it autoplayed at full volume and scared your mum when she walked in.
Photo albums full of blurry nights out
Well, nights out or, more likely, blurry photos of you and your mates in your bedrooms with side fringes, peace signs, and that one random sepia filter. Good times.
The ‘Other Half’ feature
Forget Facebook’s relationship status! Bebo’s ‘Other Half’ was how you showed the world your ride-or-die. Your best mate or your teenage sweetheart got pride of place on your profile. Woe betide you if you broke up. The drama!
The ridiculously dramatic 'About Me'
You’d spend hours crafting an About Me that made you sound deep, tortured, and mature, full of song lyrics, inside jokes, and random ‘xXx’s for maximum edge.
The joy of logging in after school
Nothing beat rushing home, checking your MSN and then logging in to Bebo to see you had new Luv, new whiteboard scribbles, or a fresh comment on that blurry photo you uploaded during ICT. Life was simple, friendships were fragile, and we loved every second.
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