18 years on from Bebo… what terms still remain?
What terms from the Bebo generation have remained?
Back in 2005, I was sent an email notification from Bebo.com informing me my younger brother in law, had sent me a friend request/invite to start using Bebo…
Bebo was founded by husband-and-wife team Michael and Xochi Birch in January 2005 at their home in San Francisco. The website name was bought by the founders, and the backronym “Blog Early, Blog Often” was invented to answer the question of what the name meant.
First I thought, what the heck is Bebo? I looked it up and as I was only 3 years removed from University (so still somewhat youngish and foolish!) and still had MySpace and FriendsReunited and still used these to keep in touch with my friends whom either hadn’t got a mobile phone yet or I didn’t have their number… so I thought why not try it out and see if any of my other friends from school and childhood were on there.
Much to my surprise, yes there were and I started using it for uploading silly pictures, memes (although not sure that was a term back then) and messages back and forth between friends and family. Soon enough I had quite a bit on there, with the UK and Ireland being one of the biggest territory of users for the American based company (San Francisco), but then in 2008, I was sent another request to join FaceBook….which soon enough then ALL my friends were on FaceBook snooping at each others profiles, updating statuses, like ‘going to sleep’ and ‘going for a pint’ and checking in at hotels, music festivals and so on.
Soon enough it was uncool to be on Bebo and you HAD to move to FaceBook. So yes I migrated to FaceBook for friends and family and Twitter(X) for tweets/statuses…and have had them both since 2008 and 2009, fifteen or so years later. Bebo was later acquired by AOL in 2008, which then sold it to a private equity firm and then officially closed down in 2013.
But 18 years on from my first proper social media profile on Bebo, I am wondering is what about those first cool terms that were coined on Bebo — where are they now, do they still exist in their meaning, and do people still use them?? Here we go, a top ten of terms and their meaning on Bebo in 2008 were:
Stunting: Showing off
I do not use this term and have very rarely heard it used in any sense on TV, real life or in chats…so I would say this is gone in popular culture.
Bare: A lot of
The term ‘bare faced cheek’ comes to mind, when I hear this term, but I dont think this is a youth term and is more of an older generational use. Not used now in my experience.
Mugged: Take the mick (being made fun of)
Yes, this is used still to this day. Only last week when I had the chance to play Grand Theft Auto 5 on the PS4, did I hear it on the chat when I sneaked up and whacked another online player, stealing his car afterwards…
Fiend: Addicted to something
Not heard it used in this meaning nowadays — fiend now has reverted to its original meaning of an evil spirit or demon. This is popular culture is derived from the WWE wrestler Bray Wyatt taking the Fiend moniker as a ‘ring name’.
Hater: Negative person (Haters gonna hate…)
This is the most used out of the ALL the original Bebo most used terms. It has been used on EVERY social medium platform, publisher, every newspaper, magazine and writing platforms — why?? Because this world is full of haters — hating what other people are doing, whether it is good or bad. I do not necessarily mean that there are more haters in the world now than when Bebo was about, I just mean that the term is used absolutely everywhere to denote a person who for a very good reason or for no reason at all, hates on another person, animal, country, religion, inanimate thing or anything in general.
Cool: Good
Yes this is used frequently nowadays as much as it always was. But its a bit uncool to say cool now if you know what I mean ;)
Bruv: Mate / Friend
Yes this is still used nowadays. This phrase is derived from England in the United Kingdom — slang for bruuver (brother) to denote your actual brother or a friend.
Grim: Disgusting
Yes still used today, but not as much as it once was on Bebo. Same meaning, just not used as much.
Naff: Embarrassing
Naff is particularly popular in London and the south of England. If something is uncool, people may say it is ‘naff’ or ‘cheesy’ (the latter is used especially for anything with clichés — a cheesy song, for example).
Pinky: £50 note
Not heard this at all in a long time. This is derived from the United Kingdom, as pink is the colour tone of the £50 pound sterling bank note — which are not as common nowadays either. £50 notes tend to be given out by the banks, and with services now moving more and more to cashless point of sales (POS) and swift transactions such as Apple Pay, Tapping and the like, actual cash notes will at some point (not in the too distant future) start to be a thing of the past. Never heard the word Pinky to denote a £50 note myself, but can see the connection.
Most of these terms are UK/Ireland based, as Bebo was a huge hit in the UK / Ireland, but over time they could not scale at the rate FaceBook could (in 2008 Bebo had 40 developers versus the 2000 at FaceBook), and as such no further developments came along, it got swamped by its main competitor FaceBook and was sold off to AOL, who in turn sold it to a private equity firm a couple of years later and then stopped in 2013. A failed comeback in 2021 didnt realise anything of materialistic value and again was stopped.
So all we have from Bebo is a number of slang phrases that are still relevant to this day and some cool or uncool memories of one of the first social media websites to come along.
