6 Steps to Deleting Your Facebook in 2014

Could you do it?  It's unbelievable how heavily today's social interactions rely on this website.  A theme of 2013 has been the invasion of privacy, but what's interesting is how much people freely give up their own information.  How much is the NSA gathering that we don't already post for the world to see on websites like this?  Social media is fantastic, but when your current boss can see all of your photos from high school... that's a little weird.  Rather than spend hours fiddling with privacy settings and figuring out what friends should have access to what, I've made it my first task of 2014 to disconnect completely from Facebook.  From now on I will reach out to friends personally to find out what's going on in their lives.  I'll hear their life updates from their own lips.  Instagram and Twitter will suffice for sharing photos, big news, and random links.  The rest will be up to me, using good old phone and email to keep in touch with friends.  For those bold (some would say crazy) souls who want to get out of Facebook as smoothly as possible, here you go:

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STEP 1: Do a sweep of your Friends list.  This is the most time-consuming step, but I feel it's necessary.  When I decided to delete my account, I had over 600 friends which spanned more than a decade of my life.  In about two hours I was able to halve that number.  You know how you look on Facebook and get a little ego boost when you see how many friends you have?  Yeah, that's really not accurate, it turns out.  Because half of these people were people I (1) rarely, if ever, had an entire conversation with, (2) knew briefly but not well because they were just part of the wider group I was in, or (3) couldn't even remember the names of... seriously, I had no recollection of about 35 people's names and faces.  I even had (I kid you not) two Facebook accounts for people that don't even exist... one was for a giant Barbie doll.  So, it's not hard to get your friends down to a more manageable number.  The great part of this exercise is that you'll end up with a fantastic list of the people you really do care about keeping in your life (imo, quality is always better than quantity).

STEP 2: Explain how you're not going to fall off the face of the earth.  Your remaining friends deserve a head's up, and if you want to make sure that they'll still be able to reach you, this step is vital (Isn't it crazy to think how many people we would have no way of getting in touch with if Facebook didn't exist?).  It might be easier to divide who's left into groups based on how you know them.  I found it easiest to send a message to all my high school/hometown friends first, then college, etc.  Explain why you're closing your Facebook out, because if you don't you're going to get asked by everyone.  More importantly, let them know how you can still be reached.  In my message, I said that I hoped they would all connect with me on LinkedIn, gave them both my professional and personal email addresses, and also gave them my Skype username.

STEP 3: Leave notice on Group boards.  Were you in a sorority in college?  Do you have a Facebook group for your classmates from your semester abroad?  It's definitely worth it to take a moment to leave a quick "Hey, just a head's up I'm deleting my Facebook account, you can reach me here and here now, and I hope you'll reach out."  It just says that you still want to be in the loop, that you don't want to lose the friendships and connections you've cultivated there.  If there are individuals you really want to make sure you can stay connected with, then be sure to reach out to them on an individual basis - a group board isn't the place to do that.  For group boards, just think of it as leaving a change of address notice. ;)

STEP 4: Download all your information.  Download all your information.  Facebook has this nifty feature I just discovered.  Under General Account Settings there is a small, nondescript link that says "Download a copy of your Facebook data."  You'll get an email with a link and then you'll spend about 15 minutes to half an hour or more waiting for a giant file with ALL your Facebook information to download.  I literally mean ALL: it includes your chat/messages history; everything you've ever posted or liked or even hidden; all your photos, friends (including requests and even removed/deleted friends), and phone numbers; anything that was ever posted or liked by others on your Wall; anything you ever shared or searched; and all your status updates and recent activity.  The one thing it doesn't include is photos you're tagged in that belong to other people, but you can grab every photo you're tagged in with PhotoGrabber.

STEP 5: Delete your account.  The moment is here!  If you have trouble finding the button to delete your Facebook, you can just click this link and it will take you there directly (once you're logged in).  Remember, this is not the same as deactivating your account, which is what you should do if you just want a break from the website.  If you're having major doubts at this point, definitely consider just deactivating, because once you delete your account, you'll have to completely start from scratch should you decide to return.  Not that starting fresh on Facebook is a bad thing; in fact, that might be just what you need!

STEP 6: Give your social media a makeover.  You now have the ability to completely reevaluate how and through what social media you wish to network yourself.  Why not write a long email, or even a handwritten letter, to a friend you realized you hadn't talked to in ages while you were going through your Facebook friends.  Meanwhile, update your LinkedIn and make sure that you've reconnected with any business-related Facebook friends.  When it comes to your public face, keep Tweets, Instagram photos, etc. professional.  It's a clean slate; just think how much more personal you'll be now that you have to do a little extra work to maintain connections - perhaps it seems like you're going back to basics, but in the long run you'll end up with deeper, more lasting personal and professional relationships than you would be just clicking "Add."