The Things That Will Mortify You On Your Bebo Page
Before Bebo reinvented itself recently, I went back onto my profile to get some pictures for a friends birthday collage. Word of warning: it was a big mistake. I couldn't quite believe how much I cringed within those 15 minutes before logging out and vowing to myself never to do it again. Bebo was a place for me, as a young, immature school kid, and I genuinely thought it was the best thing to come into my life. Which it probably was, at the time. MSN wasn't the only thing connecting us with random people we had heard of from a friend of a friends cousin twice removed. We now had Bebo to talk to our fellow peers. All I can say is I am glad that those two years on Bebo were never on Facebook. Now we are in a much more mature mind frame (with a few exceptions), we can see where we went wrong. If you are feeling nostalgic and want to reminisce on all the cringey things you did on The social media haven that was Bebo, here are the Things That Will Mortify You On Your Bebo Page.
1) The Skin
Oh lord there were some cringey skins out there. Remember them? Those banners you had at the top of your profile. They either had sayings such as 'Don't Be Jealous', 'Life Is Short' and I specifically remember one saying 'HAHA I Fucked Your Boyfriend' (keeping in mind 90% of that age group were blatantly virgins).Or they either had some pattern or picture on it of the celebrity you were going to marry. These were embarrassing and should never be seen again.
2) The Comments Saying "Love You"
It wasn't the boyfriend and girlfriends comments that I cringed looking at. It was the ones to friends with 'Love you' at the end. A real girls way of showing who their best pals were. Actually now that I think of it guys would have written some pretty weird comments too.
3) The Other Halves
It was all just a bit random. You were either other halves with a person that was genuinely your best friend or else it was an absolute randomer. How many of you are still best friends with your other halves? Didn't think so. It was an awkward time and if you didn't have an other half you would feel very left out.
4) Share The Luv Hearts
Now, who you would give your heart to was a very serious decision. You only got three a day so whoever got these from you did something nice for you that day. And, let's not forget the excitement on Valentine's Day when you got to give unlimited hearts. There was also a unwritten competition of who had the most hearts on their page. Oh God how odd it all was.
5) Flashbox
This was a big moment. What were you going to put as your flashbox? Something funny? cute? scary? a movie trailer? a song? It had to be a well thought out process. I'm not going to tell you what mine was but it was seriously cringey.
This would have been a popular choice...
6) Illiteracy Was All The Rage
Misspelling words is far from a good thing now like it was back then. There was certainly a mixture around the Irish area from 'm8', 'sxc', 'luv', 'lyk' to the cringiest of all 'loike', 'roysh' and 'chillax'. It was a very strange phenomenon. If people spelt like that now they would be shot, not literally, but it would be very embarrassing. And, let's not forget the relationship statuses. Mine was 'It's Complicated' and trust me there was nothing complicated about it. I was fifteen for Christ's Sake.
7) Profile Views
People may not have recognized it fully but it was out there. Us school kids would compare views in secret and it is actually making me crumble with embarrassment just thinking about it. And, the ultimate fear you would get when those statuses would go around saying people could see who viewed their profile. It never actually happened but the thought itself was enough to scare the crap out of you.
8) The Top 16
What a strange thing to have. Putting your friends in order of preference. Looking back it is just the weirdest thing to do. Oh and remember when the Top 16 was increased? That was a controversial moment for us all. People would cry tears of joy if they made it in your top 3 and they would forever be indebted to you.
9) The Quizzes
I cringe at the mere thought of these. It would be your own personal quiz to see how well people knew you. Could you actually imagine the abuse you would get if you put that up on Facebook now? They had questions like "what did I dress up for Halloween?". Oh lord have mercy.
10) The Commentary All Down The Page
This would be views on random subjects, a quote you 'like totally' live by or a song lyric that touched your soul. Basically, this involved putting as much words down your homepage as humanly possible. Mine was tragic.
11) The Pictures
Back in the Bebo days we had no filter. There was no "that can't go up", they were all put up in a (previously) cleverly titled album. The title would be a private joke, one that no one else would understand. The photos all must be burnt.