Spending too much time on Facebook? Tired of constant LinkedIn notifications? Maybe it’s time to take a break from social media. While the easiest option is to log out and stay logged out until you’re ready to visit these sites again, it’s best to delete these accounts entirely to avoid the urge to log in every day.
If you’re not ready yet, you can always check out our guide to cleaning up your social media accounts. If you’ve already made up your mind, here’s a step-by-step guide to help you delete all your social media accounts.
Note that while some services may let you reactivate an account you last stopped if you reconsider, all your data will be gone once you hit the delete button at best – so make sure you know what you’re doing before proceeding.
Mail
Nowadays, almost everyone uses a Gmail account. If you decide to switch to another service – or simply want to delete an old account you no longer use – here are the steps you need to follow:
1) Go to this Google Account page and log in.
2) Here you will see three links, one to delete Gmail without deleting your Google account, the second to delete Google Books, and the third to close your Google account and delete all services. If you’re sure you want to delete your Gmail account, click the first link. You will immediately see a warning page.
3) Now you will see a confirmation page. Click the “Yes, I want to delete” checkbox, enter the new primary email address you will use for other Google services, enter your Gmail password in the dialog box, and click “Delete Gmail.” This will delete your Gmail account. Just to reiterate Google’s warning, there is no going back from this step and all your emails will be gone forever.
Facebook
Facebook makes it very difficult to delete your account. Just by looking at the settings, you won’t find an option to permanently delete your account. To find this page, you can visit Facebook’s Help Center or follow these steps:
1) If you are not sure whether you want to permanently delete your Facebook account, you can deactivate it. This way, you can rejoin within 30 days without losing your data. To do this, go to Facebook’s security settings page.
2) Now click on Deactivate your account. This link is hidden under “When you’re logged in,” so you’re unlikely to see it unless you’re looking for it.
3) Facebook will now try to emotionally blackmail you into changing your decision. If you are ignoring photos of people who “will miss you”, you can select any reason and click OK.
4) If you choose to permanently delete your account, go to Facebook’s account deletion page and click “Delete My Account.”
5) You will see a pop-up window where you have to enter your password and the characters shown in the image (verification code). Click “OK” and then click “OK” again in the second pop-up window. Facebook gives you a chance to change your mind – If you log in at any time within the next two weeks, Facebook will reactivate your account.
twitter
If you don’t want to browse the constant stream of tweets on this site, follow these steps to delete your account:
1) Go to Twitter settings and scroll to the bottom.
2) Now click on “Deactivate My Account” which is the link below the “Save Changes” button.
3) Twitter will give you a warning about what this means. If you are sure, you need to click the “Deactivate” button. This will deactivate your Twitter account. If you change your mind and choose to return to the social network, you must log in within 30 days. After 30 days, Twitter will permanently delete your account.
Google+ and YouTube
Have you accidentally signed up for Google+ through your Gmail account? Deleting your Google+ profile is easy, but it can have some unwanted consequences. First, your YouTube account will also be deleted. Yes, all your YouTube comments will be deleted and if you have a channel it will be disabled. Secondly, you won’t be able to leave reviews on the Google Play Store. This is because Google has integrated all three services.
If you still want to perform this step, you need to do the following:
1) Go to the Google+ downgrade page and log in with your Google account.
2) Now scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on the checkbox next to “Required: Yes, I understand…”.
3) Click Remove Selected Services. This will delete your Google+ and YouTube accounts.
LinkedIn
The world’s most popular career database, LinkedIn, can become quite annoying with the constant notification emails and updates that appear in your inbox. Luckily, they make it very easy to delete your account. Here’s how:
1) Open LinkedIn’s privacy and settings page and log in.
2) Click the Account tab next to the shield icon near the lower left corner of the page.
3) Under the “Helpful Links” section, select “Close your account.”
We hope this article helps you close your accounts on various websites. If you’d like to read more tutorials like this, you can always check out our “How To” section. If you have any questions or comments about this tutorial, please feel free to contact us using the comments section below.
