What a load that is off my mind! I was feeling a tad guilty about not keeping my Facebook up-to-date until the godsend study from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that found nearly three-in-ten (27 percent) of Facebook users plan to spend less time with it this year.

A little more than six-in-ten (61 percent) users told Pew that they’ve taken time off from Facebook for a period of a couple of weeks.

Why are people down on Facebook? The top reason: real life responsibilities, cited by 21 percent. That was followed by waste of time (10 percent), 10 percent (lack of interest) and too much drama (nine percent).

Facebook guru Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t need to worry about whether I’m less of a Facebook fan than I was a year or two ago. He should care that my 17-year-old daughter can’t remember the last time that she was on Facebook. She’s not a big fan of the surging crop of ads on Facebook.

The same applies to her friends, who do most of their electronic communications through instant messaging.

My 21-year-old daughter is old enough to remember the glory days of MySpace. And we all remember what happened to MySpace. She’s also not very active on Facebook these days either.

Mark has a problem on his hands.