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How to Log Off of Facebook Forever, With All Its Perks and Pitfalls

Quitting your social media accounts is not always foolproof. And while it can lead to more free time, it can also cut you off from your loved ones. And it may look suspicious to a potential employer.Credit...Darren Hauck for The New York Times

Part of the allure of social media is telling friends and strangers what’s happening in your life.

Post. Tweet. Share. Repeat.

But suppose you are worried that you have revealed too much and want to protect your privacy. You can delete your social media accounts and try to cover up your digital footprints — but be warned: The process can be laborious and is not always foolproof.

Experts cautioned against trying to erase every trace of yourself from the internet.

Rather than obliterating your social media presence, clean it up by deleting or deactivating dormant accounts, said Amy A. Lavin, a professor of management information systems at Temple University.

Lavin said that she had recently deleted her Myspace account because it was years old, probably had a “supersimple” password, and she wanted to reduce the risk that someone might take photos from her profile and use them against her.

“I think it’s a matter of being as responsible about your social media presence as your personal presence,” she said. “What is it you want people to see and know about you?”

Bruce R. Mendelsohn, a digital marketing and social media consultant, recommended staying on LinkedIn, the professional networking site. If potential employers cannot find you there, they may wonder what you are hiding, he said.

“Not being on social media raises questions about legitimacy, popularity and hipness,” he said.

Also consider your motives for wanting to disappear, Robert Siciliano, chief executive of IDTheftSecurity.com, said in an email. Are you a private person who doesn’t want the world to know your personal information? Or do you feel threatened somehow?

Sites such as accountkiller.com, deseat.me and justdelete.me link you to pages where you can delete your profiles and they provide step-by-step instructions and useful tips.

Mr. Mendelsohn suggested a “nuclear option” — deleting your accounts entirely on the “Big Four”: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus — or a “limited strike” of deleting selected posts by or about you.

“Whenever you’re deleting a social media profile, it’s important to check whether the process actually deletes your profile or simply deactivates it,” Henry Carter, a professor of computing sciences at Villanova University, said in an email.

Even when you close an account, some sites might retain your data and keep an “inactive” version of your profile posted should you decide to return, he wrote.

[Read more on how to delete Facebook and Instagram.]

You might be able to remove content you created, but it will be impossible to stop others from posting about you, said Allison Matherly, digital engagement coordinator at Texas Tech University. “In the long run, removing 100 percent of references to yourself from social media is highly improbable,” she wrote in an email.

While Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram may be your most frequent stops online, don’t overlook other platforms such as dating sites, blogs, Flickr, eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, PayPal and support forums.

“We often only think of the social media channels we are currently using, when we have actually been online and using social media or similar forms of two-way online communication for much longer than we think,” Ms. Matherly wrote.

Disappearing from the web can mean losing any marketing presence you’ve established, Mr. Siciliano said. You also may be unable to restart an eliminated account with the same name or email address.

And unplugging from social media can mean losing touch with family and friends “in an age when the letter and even the phone call are not used as often,” Ms. Matherly said.

“Many people find communities of others similar to them, and take solace and thrive from interactions with those individuals regularly,” she added.

Get rid of social media and you will have more time to do other things, Mr. Mendelsohn said. “It’s the whole FOMO thing — fear of missing out,” he said. “You’re going to relieve yourself of a lot of anxiety.”

John DeSanto, 65, of Warwick, N.Y., shut down his Facebook account in January after having it for about six years. When he was on Facebook, he went out of his way to do things that he could post so he could show off to his friends, “possibly creating a persona that may not have been completely accurate,” he said in an email.

Mr. DeSanto said he deleted his account because a relative was attacking his friends over politics. After quitting Facebook, he missed it for about two weeks, he said, but now it’s like it never existed.

The internet and social media have provided platforms where “everybody’s unintelligent ideas are flying in circles like mosquitoes around the digital campfire,” he wrote. “So now, in the world of online commenting, it’s all stupidity, all the time.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: Want to Disappear From Facebook and Twitter? First, Know the Perks and Pitfalls. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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