Almost everyone has at least one social networking account, whether that would be Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn. You probably started it because someone said that you should. Now social networking isn’t for everyone. I know that Twitter isn’t popular among my friends, but I tried to force it onto some people. Some of my friends gave in a created a Twitter and that was it, they didn’t do anything else with it.

Some people (I call them crazy) may have made a new year’s resolution to clean up or completely get rid of their online presence. I’m not really sure why anyone would do that, but if they did that, it’s their choice.  Maybe they have a million accounts and want to clean up some of those that they don’t use (that is understandable). Someone saw an opportunity from this and created Web 2.0 Suicide Machine.

Suicide Machine is a web app that will delete your Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, and (until recently) Facebook accounts. There has been a little bit of controversy over this app. Facebook blocked this app and made some pretty out there claims (see post from Cnet). They said that user information, including pictures, were being downloaded onto their server before the account deletion.

I guess the way that it deleted accounts was a little weird too. It would change the profile picture to a noose, change your password (so you no longer have access to your account), and then go through your friends one by one deleting them. According to the article at Cnet, some ‘killed’ accounts still had friends.

If you want to get rid of your account, it’s not that hard. Every site has a function that can delete your account.

On Facebook go to settings and there is a link that will deactivate your account. On Twitter, go to settings and there is a delete account link on the bottom. See how easy it is? Why give your account information to someone else, when you can easily do it yourself?

What I’m trying to say here is if you do decide to leave a social networking site, it is more secure and just as easy to do it your self. And besides we’re here for DIY (do it yourself)!