How you can discover your oldest social media posts and delete them

We’ve been residing with social media for a very long time now — Fb opened as much as the general public in 2006 — and which means a prolonged path of posts stretching again via the years. Whereas this does allow you to take a nostalgic journey into the previous with only a few clicks, it could possibly additionally carry up some embarrassing and awkward reminiscences.

Perhaps your Twitter takes from 10 years in the past haven’t aged nicely, or there’s an ex-partner you’d reasonably not keep in mind, otherwise you’re heading for a job interview and don’t need your would-be employers to guage who you at the moment are out of your decades-old social media posts.

Regardless of the motive, you will discover and delete historic social media posts with out an excessive amount of issue utilizing the online or cell apps. (They are saying that something on the web is perpetually, in fact, however you are able to do your greatest to not less than considerably mute your errors. Who is aware of? Perhaps your potential new boss by no means heard of the Wayback Machine.) We’ve included directions for Fb, X, and Instagram, as these are the locations the place you’re almost definitely to have posted content material you’ve lengthy since forgotten about.

Fb is closing in on 20 years of being out there to anybody with an e-mail tackle, so let’s begin there. In the event you had been round when Fb first arrived, you’ll keep in mind private standing updates had been way more widespread than they’re now — individuals even used to put in writing on one another’s profiles, MySpace-style.

The simplest approach to discover your oldest posts is to load Fb on the internet:

• Choose your identify (on the left) to see your profile.
• On the high of the column along with your posts listed on them (just under the What’s in your thoughts? subject), search for and click on on the Filters button.
• Use the Go to drop-down menu to seek out the 12 months you joined Fb. (Don’t keep in mind once you joined? We’ll let you know learn how to discover that data in a second.)
• Click on Achieved to see posts from that 12 months.

You possibly can return via your posts on cell, too.

• Open your Fb profile within the cell app.
• Scroll right down to your posts and search for (and faucet) the Filters hyperlink to the fitting.
• With cell, it’s a little bit extra awkward; you possibly can’t simply leap to particular years however should faucet via a calendar as an alternative.

Don’t keep in mind once you joined Fb? That’s one thing you will discover out, though the method is a little bit difficult:

• Open Fb and click on your profile image.
• Choose Settings & Privateness > Settings.
• Search for the Account Middle on the fitting facet of your web page. Choose it after which go to Your Info and Permissions > Entry Your Info > Private Info. 
• Your account creation date will likely be the very first thing beneath Profile info.

• Choose your profile picture within the upper-right nook.
• Go to Settings & Privateness > Settings > Account Middle > Your info and permissions > Entry your info > Private info. 
• As with the online model, if you happen to search for Profile info, you’ll see the date you created your account.

When you’ve got plenty of posts to sift via, you should utilize different filters (like month) to slim down the outcomes. In the event you see one thing you wish to do away with, simply click on the three dots subsequent to it, then click on Delete put up.

X, which was beforehand often called Twitter, can usually be a spot for opinions and takes, and it’s doable — even possible — that a few of them have aged higher than others. If you wish to go down reminiscence lane (and assuming you haven’t already deactivated your account), you will get to your oldest tweets in just a few methods, however utilizing the platform’s built-in search engine is probably the most easy.

• Kind (from:username) till:yyyy-mm-dd since:yyyy-mm-dd within the search field on the high of the web page. 
• Change the username to your X deal with, regulate the dates, after which hit Enter.
• Click on the Newest tab on the high to type the posts chronologically.

To delete a tweet, click on the three dots subsequent to it, then click on Delete.

In the event you don’t keep in mind once you first joined, go to your Profile; the date you joined ought to be beneath your description.

If you wish to use the cell app for X as an alternative, you should utilize the identical search phrases as above to seek out your tweets. Simply faucet the magnifying glass icon on the backside of the display screen to get to the search field.

Instagram is only some years behind Fb and X with regards to age, showing in public for the primary time in 2010. That’s plenty of years for images and movies to construct up in your public feed, even when plenty of Instagram exercise is concentrated on Tales, which mechanically disappear.

Right here, you’re greatest off utilizing the Instagram app on cell:

• Faucet your profile image (backside proper).
• Faucet on the three horizontal traces (high proper).
• Select Your exercise > Posts.
• Faucet Latest to oldest and alter it to Oldest to latest.

Your first-ever Instagram posts will then seem on the high of the display screen. If you wish to be extra particular in your search, faucet the All dates drop-down menu, which helps you to search for Instagram posts inside a particular date vary.

In the event you see one thing you’d reasonably not have in your Instagram profile, faucet on the put up, faucet the three dots within the top-right nook, after which select Delete. The identical menu allows you to archive a put up, which implies you possibly can nonetheless see it (and all of the feedback and likes), nevertheless it’s hidden for everybody else.