Happy New Year! It's now 2023, and with the new year comes the chance to start over fresh. Maybe it's time for a new, social media-less you?
It's probably easy to say "goodbye" to Facebook. Most of your friends left long ago. However, Facebook is just one part of Mark Zuckerberg's social networking giant, Meta. And you likely use one of its other platforms...Instagram.
But deleting Instagram shouldn't be too hard either. All those big problems Facebook has, well, Instagram's got them too: Disinformation, fake followers, foreign influence campaigns, NFTs, scams, surveillance, just to name a few issues.
If you want to stick to your New Year's Resolution and log off social media for good, that means it's time to say goodbye to your Instagram account, too.
So, you ready? OK, here's how to delete Instagram from your life forever.
You can't delete from Instagram app
First things first: If you’re looking for a delete button somewhere in the menus on your Instagram mobile app (you know, the thing most people use to surf and post on Instagram), you can stop. You cannot delete your Instagram account via the mobile app.
You can only delete your account by logging into Instagram from your desktop or mobile browser.
Download your Instagram data first
But before we get to deleting your account, you may want to download your data to your own personal computer hard drive first.
To do that, log in to your account via the web browser and click “Settings” (the gears icon) on your profile page. Click the “Privacy & Security” option on the pop-up menu, then click on “Request Download” under Data Download.
Type in your email address and hit the “next” button. Instagram will email you a downloadable file with all your data within 48 hours.
Got your data? Good. Now, to delete your account.
Delete your Instagram account
Log in to Instagram and click this link to go to the Instagram account deletion page. Are you deleting your account because of data concerns? Privacy issues? Let Instagram know via the options in the drop-down menu.
After that, you’ll be presented with a password input. Just type out your Instagram password and click “permanently delete my account.”
Remember! Your account, along with all your photos and data, will be deleted from the platform for good. You will not be able to register a new account with that same username, so make sure you really want to delete your account before hitting that button.
And ... that’s it. You are now free from yet another Mark Zuckerberg-run social media platform. Congratulations and Happy New Year!
This story was originally published in December 2020 and updated in December 2022.
