- Disconnecting from Facebook
- Disconnecting from Other Social Networks
- The Social Ramifications of Disconnecting
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Disconnecting from Other Social Networks
Fortunately, disconnecting from most other social networks is much easier than disconnecting from Facebook. (This says something about how ingrained Facebook is with our online lives, I supposed.) Let’s look at a few of the major social media and how to disconnect from them.
- Twitter. To deactivate your Twitter account, log on to Twitter, go to your Account settings and click Deactivate My Account. When prompted, click Okay, Fine, Deactivate Account, then enter your password and verify (again) that you want to quit. Pretty easy, really.
- Pinterest. As popular as Pinterest has become, you may want to go cold turkey on this latest addition. To deactivate your Pinterest account, log in then click your username on the Pinterest toolbar. Click Edit Profile, then click Delete Account. That’s it – all your pinboards will be deleted and you will cease to exist on the site.
- Google+. Not that anybody’s really using Google+, but lots of people are officially members and if you want to go totally off the grid, you’ll want to remove your presence from Google’s official social network. Fortunately, you can do so without also deleting your master Google Account; they’re intertwined, but not completely so. Go to http://www.google.com/settings/, scroll down to the Services section, and click Delete Profile and Associated Google+ Features. When the next page appears, make sure you check the Delete Google+ Content option (not the Delete Your Entire Google Profile option), then click the Remove Selected Services button.
- LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social network for business professionals, but if you want to cut the cord, this one also has to go. Start by mousing over your name in the top right corner of your home page, then click Settings. When the next page appears, go to the Account setting and click Close Your Account. Select a reason for closing your account and click Continue; this will remove you from the LinkedIn ranks.
(But what about all those tweets you’ve made in the past? Sorry, Charlie; once you’ve tweeted something, it’s always out there for anyone to find. Yes, there’s a Delete option next to each tweet you’ve made, but that only deletes the tweet from the Twitter site. Anyone with access to Google can easily find your older tweets, even if they’ve been officially deleted. You gotta get used to the fact that online, your past will always be there to haunt you.)
Obviously, you’ll need to deactivate each account separately if you truly want to delete your entire social networking presence. There’s little point in deactivating one account and keeping others active if you’re serious about leaving the social networking universe.