How to Deactivate Your Facebook Account: The Ultimate Guide
Facebook has become an integral part of many people‘s lives. With over 2 billion monthly active users, it‘s one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.
However, constant connections, notifications, and the fear of missing out can take a toll on your mental health. This is why an increasing number of people are looking to take a break from Facebook.
Deactivating your Facebook account is the best way to step away from the platform temporarily. It hides your profile and prevents others from viewing your information while keeping all your data intact.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know about deactivating your Facebook account.
What Happens When You Deactivate Your Facebook Account?
When you deactivate your Facebook account:
- Your profile, photos, posts, videos, and other personal information are hidden from other users.
- You stop showing up in searches on Facebook.
- You can no longer comment on posts or react to content.
- You won‘t receive notifications, messages, or friend requests.
- Your Facebook Messenger account remains active so you can still chat with friends.
- You can reactivate your account by logging back in with your credentials anytime. All your information will be restored.
Essentially, deactivating your account allows you to take a break from Facebook without losing any data. It‘s like putting your account on hold.
The Difference Between Deactivation and Deletion
It‘s important not to confuse deactivation with permanent account deletion:
Deactivation
- Temporarily disables your account
- Your information remains stored on Facebook‘s servers
- You can easily reactivate your account
Deletion
- Permanently removes your account and all associated data
- Very difficult to undo and recover information
If you might want to use Facebook again in the future, deactivation is the better option. On the other hand, if you want to permanently close your account, deletion is the way to go.
Why People Deactivate or Delete Facebook Accounts
Before going through the step-by-step process, it‘s worth exploring some of the top reasons why people make the decision to deactivate or delete their Facebook accounts in the first place:
1. Privacy and Security Concerns
With a massive trove of personal data on billions of users, Facebook poses huge privacy risks. Even if you carefully limit sharing, Facebook tracks an extensive amount of information about you including:
- Pages you visit around the web
- Devices you use
- Your location
- Apps and services you sign up for
- And more
They use this data to serve you highly targeted ads. But it also leaves you vulnerable in the event of a breach.
Deactivating your account vastly reduces the amount of data Facebook can collect on you. This gives you much stronger privacy protection.
2. Too Much Time and Distraction
The average person spends almost an hour a day scrolling through their feed and reacting to content. While keeping up with friends can be enjoyable, it also represents significant time lost.
Beyond that, many users report feeling addicted to checking notifications and afraid of missing out on the latest posts. This distraction and obsession is mentally taxing.
Deactivating your account allows you to reclaim focus for other aspects of your life. It institutes a healthy boundary with technology use.
3. Comparison and Insecurity
It‘s impossible to escape the highlight reels of others filling up your Facebook feed. Photos of vacations, social gatherings, and success stories constantly bombard you.
Seeing friends and peers doing well often triggers feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and depression. Researchers have found a direct link between Facebook usage and poorer mental health especially among teens and young adults.
By deactivating your account you give yourself a break from the perfectionism contests that breed negative self-talk.
4. Misinformation and Polarization
Facebook‘s algorithms prioritize posts with high engagement over factual accuracy or balance. This leads to misinformation spreading rapidly across the platform.
Worse still, the echo chambers created reinforce pre-existing beliefs and drive political polarization. Facebook has faced backlash for its role in everything from genocides to elections.
These dynamics illustrate why many choose to leave entirely. Deactivation allows time for perspective.
5. Ideological Misgivings
Some people take issue with Facebook going beyond a platform for connections to being a vast for-profit surveillance operation. They object to the target advertising systems that commodify attention.
Others see Facebook‘s size and impact enabling societal harms. Deletion eliminates complicity and comes from principled opposition.
There are many valid reasons people seek to deactivate or delete Facebook accounts – from mental health to objections over ethics and impacts. Understanding motives provides helpful context.
Step-by-Step Guide to Deactivate Your Facebook Account
Deactivating your Facebook takes less than a minute. Just follow these simple steps:
On Desktop:
- Log into your Facebook account through a web browser.
- Click on the down arrow located next to the question mark on the top right.
- Select Settings & Privacy > Settings.
- On the left sidebar, click Your Facebook Information.
- Choose Deactivation and Deletion.
- Click Deactivate Account and confirm by clicking Continue to Account Deactivation.
On Mobile:
- Open the Facebook app on your phone.
- Tap on the three-line menu icon in the bottom right.
- Scroll down and choose Settings & Privacy.
- Tap on Settings.
- Scroll to Your Facebook Information and tap on it.
- Tap on Deactivation and Deletion.
- Select Deactivate Account and confirm it.
After deactivating your account, your profile and posts won‘t be visible to other users on Facebook anymore.
What Stays Visible After You Deactivate Facebook?
Although most of your information disappears from public view after deactivation, some elements still remain visible:
Your Name: People you‘ve messaged can still see your name in previous conversations. However, clicking on your name won‘t lead anywhere because your profile is no longer active.
Messages: Previous messages you‘ve sent are still visible to the recipients. But your account name now shows up as "Facebook User" instead of your actual name.
Groups: You stay a member of groups you‘ve joined, but you can no longer post or comment in them. Admins and moderators can remove you from groups if they want.
Pages: If you owned a Facebook Page, it will still be live even though your personal account is deactivated. Other admins can still post and manage the Page.
Friends List: You disappear from your friends‘ lists. But it‘s still possible for someone to send you a friend request or message which will be waiting if you reactivate.
Event RSVPs: Any events you RSVPed to keep your name on their guest list. But your deactivated account is not clickable.
Outside of the above exceptions, your entire account disappears from public view on Facebook when deactivated.
What Happens Behind the Scenes When You Deactivate
To understand exactly what changes under the hood when your Facebook account is deactivated, you have to comprehend a few key technical details:
Your Data Stays on Facebook‘s Servers
Unlike deletion which erases information, deactivation keeps all your posts, photos, messages and other content stored in Facebook‘s databases. This allows them to restore your account.
You Can‘t Log In or Use Features
Facebook revokes access privileges when you deactivate. Your credentials become temporarily invalid. It‘s as if your account password was changed to a random string you don‘t know. This blocks any ability to log in or interact.
Your Profile and Posts Become Hidden
On the public-facing side, CSS code is applied to your profile and content to remove it from view. Links to your profile redirect to an error message. You effectively disappear from general sight.
Apps Lose Access
Any external apps you gave rights to publish or retrieve data via Facebook‘s API also have their privileges revoked. This stops them interacting with your inactive account.
So in technical terms, deactivation relies on restricting access credentials and utilizing code to hide profiles from public view – while retaining data on the back-end.
How to Reactivate Your Deactivated Facebook Account
If you take a break and feel ready to return to Facebook later on, reactivating your account takes seconds:
- Go to Facebook.com and log in with your credentials as usual.
- A pop-up will ask if you want to reactivate your account. Confirm it.
- Facebook will reactivate your account automatically. All your previous posts, photos, friends, and groups are restored.
Logging back in essentially just re-enables your access credentials. This is why reactivation is simple and quick – requiring just a click to undo.
And your account will be fully functional again! The reactivation process works the same whether you‘re on desktop or mobile.
Should You Delete Your Facebook Account Permanently?
Deactivating your account is the best option if you think you might use Facebook again later. However, if you‘re done for good, account deletion is better:
Why People Choose to Delete Facebook
- Strong privacy concerns about how their data is used
- Facebook‘s algorithms cause negative mental health impacts
- Don‘t have self-control to stay away while account is deactivated
- Ideological objections to the platform
- Moving interactions to alternative networks
What Happens When You Delete Your Account?
- Profile, posts, photos, videos, and all personal data is erased
- Friends, group memberships, and pages you run are removed
- You stop showing up in other people‘s friends lists or messages
- Can take up to 90 days for Facebook to fully delete all cached data
Once your account is deleted, there is no going back. You cannot reactivate it or recover any data you had stored there. The deletion is permanent.
How to Delete Your Facebook Account
The steps are very similar to deactivation:
- Click on Settings & Privacy > Settings
- Go to Your Facebook Information
- Select Deactivation and Deletion
- This time choose Delete Account instead
- Enter your password to confirm account deletion
If you have second thoughts within the first 14 days, you can cancel and reverse deletion. But after that two week period, there is no way to retrieve your account or personal information you had on Facebook.
Comparison of Facebook to Alternative Social Networks
If privacy issues or other problems with Facebook prompted you to deactivate your account, you may want to explore some alternative social media options as well:
| Snapchat | Tumblr | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orientation | General purpose social network | Microblogging platform | Photo + video sharing app | Messaging with image filters | Blog hosting with multimedia content |
| Key Features | – Share text, photo, video posts – Private messaging – Events – Groups – Gaming ecosystem | – Post short text updates ("Tweets") – Use hashtags – Public comment threads | – Share photos and videos – Stories feature – IGTV long videos | – Send snaps (photos/videos) – Video call capability – Augmented reality lenses/filters | – Easy blogging interface – Reblogging and sharing posts |
| Privacy Issues? | High – extensive data collection for ad targeting | Moderate – collects usage data and tracks interactions | Growing – increased data harvesting since Facebook purchase | Low – messages delete automatically | Low – lightweight data policies |
As you can see, every platform comes with upsides and downsides. But alternatives like Snapchat and Tumblr offer much greater privacy protection compared to Facebook – while still facilitating convenient communication.
Evaluating all options can help identify better aligned networks as you leave Facebook behind. And incorporating breaks between services gives useful perspective.
Key Things to Do Before Deactivating or Deleting
If you do decide to deactivate or delete your Facebook account, there are some important things you should do first:
Download Your Information
Go to Settings > Your Facebook Information > Download Your Information to save a copy of your Facebook data including photos, posts, profile info, and messages you want to keep.
Remove Personal Info From Profile
Delete phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc. that you may not want to be publicly available after you‘re gone.
Review Privacy Settings
Double check who can see your posts, photos, information, and more. Tighten settings if needed.
Deactivate Connected Apps/Websites
Go to Settings > Apps and Websites to disconnect any third-party services you used Facebook to log into. Otherwise they may still have access to some data.
Taking the above precautions allows you to leave while minimizing risks to your privacy and without losing cherished photos or memories.
Dangers of Permanent Deletion
Although deactivating your Facebook account keeps it in a disabled state, fully deleting it erases all your information permanently:
Make Sure You Have Copies of Memories
If there are photos, posts, or conversations on your Facebook account that are special to you, download archives because they will be gone forever after deletion.
You Lose Ability to Regain Access
With deactivation you can log back in with your credentials at any time. But deletion is non-reversible. There‘s no way to retrieve the account or data.
Still No Guarantee of Total Erasure
Facebook claims deletion wipes all user data from their systems. But because of backups and caching, experts warn traces may continue residing in internal databases. So privacy concerns may not be totally solved.
Give Yourself Time to Change Mind
The option to reverse account deletion expires after just 14 days. So if you do have second thoughts shortly after, you no longer can undo it.
While deleting your account provides a cleaner break from Facebook than deactivation, keep the permanent impacts in mind before making this irrevocable choice.
Key Takeaways
Deactivating your account allows you to take a refreshing break from Facebook when you feel overwhelmed or need a reset. It buys you time away while keeping your data intact as a backup plan if you ever want to return.
If your goal is to permanently disconnect from Facebook, account deletion is the way to go for a clean break. Just make sure you don‘t have any loose ends before erasing your presence completely.
Either way, this step-by-step guide should teach you exactly how to deactivate or delete your Facebook account with ease. Here‘s to regaining balance and taking control of your technology use!
