Culture

Bebo Is Coming Back This Month, And It’s Time To Admit That There’s Been No Better Social Media

Tell me where else you can use :L and type Liik3 tHii5, and no one bats an eye?

by Michelle Rennex  1 February 2021
bebo

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In case you missed the glorious news: The iconic ’00s social media site Bebo is coming back!

Yep, millennials it’s finally our time to shine. No longer do we have to try and blend in with Gen Z on TikTok because Bebo announced over the weekend that it would return in February 2021 as a “brand-new social network”, according to their website.

Sadly, this does mean that all of our old accounts, data, and cringey, overexposed selfies from “many years ago” are gone forever.  But, on the plus side, the site has shared that they’ve already banned Trump from the platform before it’s even launched. Praise be.

The new platform has actually been developed by the original founders of the 2005 site, so it’s bound to be great. However, there has been no confirmation on whether the new social platform will incorporate the iconic elements of the original site.

Arguably a whole lot better than MySpace (don’t tell ’80s and early ’90s babies that) and way more inventive than Facebook (don’t tell boomers and people with kids that), Bebo had so many features that we are currently desperately missing on social media.

So here are all the things that made Bebo the best social networking website of all time:

Sharing The Luv

The biggest rush you could get in high school was receiving one of someone’s three “luvs” for the day. Sure, it personally caused me to have several mental breakdowns along the way, but stalking how many “luvs” your friends had and watching who gave them to your crush was truly thrilling stuff.

Having An Other Half

On Facebook, the only thing close to an “other half” is when you update your relationship status with your partner or turn your friend into your “sister”. But not on Bebo’s watch — normalise platonic other halves!

The only real problem the other half feature brings is in friendship groups with odd numbers, where someone is bound to be other half-less. Or, of course, when your friend dumps you as their other half so they can slot in their girlfriend or boyfriend — or in 2021, it would probably now most likely be their husband or wife, or even their own kid.

Finding And Designing Your Own Skins

The best part about Bebo was the ability to customise your page with the most outrageous “skins” imaginable.

Just like MySpace, Bebo taught a lot of us how to incorporate elements of graphic design (terribly, admittedly) and coding to create the perfect ~look~ for our profiles. And by perfect look, I mean text that probably read: “B3b0’s H0TT3st ChiiCK” in hot pink with an arrow pointing to the profile photo.

Normalising Always Writing Liik3 Th!5 <3

Honestly, the way we all used to type on Bebo took some skill. Knowing exactly which letters to replace so that words didn’t look too planned out or unreadable was an art in itself. It was also always a fun time using “:L” instead of “lmao” or “hahaha”.

Much simpler times, and it seems like it’s definitely time to BriinG iiT b@cK.

Writing Long, Descriptive Bios

What a lot of social media platforms are missing is the ability to actually express personality. No one really uses the bio function on Facebook, plus Twitter and Instagram only give you a certain amount of characters to say who you are. Bebo can’t relate.

Bebo gave you space to talk about yourself, in something that’s more reminiscent of a dating site like Hinge. You could share what music you liked, the movies that best summed up your taste, and the exact sports you were interested in within their own little sections. Hell, the site even had a spot for you to share what you were scared of and what made you happiest. Can Facebook do that? I don’t think so.

Ranking Your Top 16 Friends

Sure, MySpace might have created the Top 8, but Bebo gave us the iconic Top 16.

And while I probably don’t even have 16 friends to put in my top slots these days, I’d like to have the option. Plus, how can anyone forget the tactic of just adding a bunch of fake “arrow profiles” that had text describing your best friends like “<– BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE –>” in spot number two or “SEXY BITCH –>” in the bottom corner?

Bebo also gave us the most petty way to fight with friends through the Top 16, too. I mean, is there really anything more petty than quietly re-ranking your Top 16, and then updating your bio with a random lyric about fake friends? Long gone is the need for dramatic Instagram and Snapchat story posts with cryptic captions! Just switch your friend from spot three to spot nine!

Taking Selfies To Be A “Bebo Stunnah”

Before we had Instagram influencers, “Bebo Stunnahs” were ruling the internet.

These Bebo Stunnah pages were essentially just profiles that would collate the ~stunning girls~ using the website, and honestly? The Stunnahs were the elite on Bebo. Everyone dreamed of being one, and because everyone desperately wanted to be featured as a Bebo Stunnah, we took as many pics of ourselves as possible.

The unmatched confidence I possessed as a teen when submitting my pics to these pages is something I wish I had now. We all had so much self-love. I mean, having entire albums dedicated to selfies, which were all basically the same photo, was the norm. Sure they were over-exposed and had far too much contrast, but we still took those pics and posted them anyway like the bad bitches we are.

Uploading Your Favourite Tunes Via Flashbox

Bebo’s Flashbox was the perfect way to show people how cool you were by unearthing music before anyone else. Or, if you were a moody teen like me, Flashbox was the way you expressed how you were feeling about life.

Of course, most of the time, we all seemed to just settle on DJ Sammy’s ‘Heaven’ for some reason. But I’m not mad at it, and if Flashbox returned, it would probably still be my page anthem.

Drawing All Over People’s Whiteboard

Being able to draw a set of dick and balls on your friends whiteboard? Iconic. Bebo, you better be bringing it back RIGHT NOW.