Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff.
Want to delete your social media accounts? Ready to be rid of the friends lists, the ads, the notifications? We hear you. Here are all our guides on how to do it.
Frankly, we wouldn’t blame you for wanting to get off the crazy rollercoaster that is social media. Between the myriad misinformation and privacy issues, not to mention the targeted advertising, social media can be an uncomfortable experience for many. Not to mention it’s often a way of finding out that our family, friends, or idols are just… not who we thought they were. So yeah, we get it.
If you’re ready for it, then we can help you delete all of your social media accounts, and take yourself off the biggest platforms.
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Removing yourself from the big FB could mean either deleting your account or merely deactivating it. The latter is just what it sounds like: temporarily putting your account on ice so you can do a social media detox. Honestly, out of all the sites on this list, Facebook is the one you would probably most need to cleanse yourself of, so we do recommend deactivation before deletion. BUT… given everything Facebook has done and been in the last few years, we also don’t blame you if you want to go cold turkey, especially during an election cycle. So you can find Cara’s complete guide on how to delete your Facebook here.
Just like Facebook above, Instagram’s got the same issues of being a rather overwhelming site from which you might need a break. Trust me, I understand being tired of the constant influx of doctored photos, FOMO, and just general extra-ness that is Instagram. Like its adoptive big brother, Facebook, Instagram offers the ability to deactivate your account for a while if all you want is some time off. And if you find your life is just generally better without an Instagram account, then you can check out our guide here.
Twitter is one of the loudest social media platforms, by far. Unless you’re very skilled at curating your Twitter lists and you’re diligent with the mute button, it can often seem like an unfettered stream of microthoughts blasted at you 24/7/365. And I get it — that can get tiring. Unlike the Facebook platforms mentioned above, Twitter only offers you a deactivation option, which is also a sort of slow-burn deletion. You can reactivate your account after a break, or you can just let Twitter delete it after a period of silence. Read more about it here.
LinkedIn stands at that odd crossroads where it’s not quite a social media platform in the same way as the others on this list, and yet comes with all the annoyances they do. Namely, too many notifications, too many people you don’t know trying to bother you, a homegrown culture of words and images you don’t quite understand if you’re not on the platform regularly. As with most of the other platforms on this list, you also have the option of deactivating or “hibernating” your account, or deleting it outright. Check out our guide here.
Snapchat
Whereas the others on this list I could see one deleting out of exasperation or sheer dislike, Snapchat I imagine many are going to delete out of boredom. Snapchat is something many grow out of. Like with Twitter, your account is considered deactivated for 30 days, and can be reactivated and saved at any time before that point. However, if you don’t reactivate, your account will be deleted after 30 days. However, unlike the other social media platforms, Snapchat kind of demands you use desktop to delete your account rather than the app itself. We have more info here.
TikTok
TikTok is something of a controversial app in some parts of the world. While the parent company behind the app has denied it’s the spyware many accuse it of being, its history of being unwelcoming to those with disabilities and political censorship would be enough for many to want to get rid of it. Unlike all the others on this list, a deletion is a deletion and there’s no option to hibernate or deactivate your account. So if you’re sure you’ve gotten the new social media hotness out of your system, you can read about how to delete your account here.
And that’s it! That’s our list of ways to delete yourself from some of the most common social media platforms. Good luck!
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