Good year! We are now in 2023, and with the new year comes the opportunity to start fresh. Maybe it’s time for you to have a new social network without you?
It’s probably easy to say “goodbye” to Facebook. Most of your friends left a long time ago. However, Facebook is only part of Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant, Meta. And you probably use one of his other platforms… Instagram.
But deleting Instagram shouldn’t be too difficult either. All those big problems Facebook haswell, Instagram has them too: Disinformationfake followers, foreign influence campaigns, NFTs, scamssurveillance, to name a few problems.
If you want to stick to your New Year’s resolution and disconnect from social media for good, that means it’s also time to say goodbye to your Instagram account.
So, ready? OK, here’s how to remove Instagram from your life forever.
You cannot delete from the Instagram app
First, if you’re looking for a delete button somewhere in your Instagram mobile app menus (you know, the thing most people use to surf and post on Instagram), you can stop. You can not delete your Instagram account through the mobile application.
You can Alone delete your account by logging into Instagram from your desktop or mobile browser.
Download your Instagram data first
But before deleting your account, you can first download your data to the hard drive of your personal computer.
To do this, log in to your account through the web browser and click on “Settings” (the gear icon) on your profile page. Click on “Privacy & Security” option from the pop-up menu and then click on “Request Download” under Data Download.
Make sure to download your Instagram data before deleting all your memories.
Type your email address and click the “Next” button. Instagram will email you a downloadable file with all your data within 48 hours.
Do you have your data? Good. Now to delete your account.
Delete your Instagram account
Log in to Instagram and click on this link to enter the Instagram account deletion page. Are you deleting your account due to data issues? Privacy issues? Let Instagram know via the drop-down menu options.
Why are you deleting Instagram? Well, they want to know.
After that, you will be presented with a password entry. Simply type in your Instagram password and click “delete my account permanently”.
Remember! Your account, along with all your photos and data, will be deleted off the platform for good. You won’t be able to register a new account with the same username, so make sure you really want to delete your account before hitting this button.
And that’s all. You are now free from another social media platform run by Mark Zuckerberg. Congratulations and Happy New Year!
This story was originally published in December 2020 and updated in December 2022.
