Facebook may be near ubiquitous in the United States but Pew finds that a majority of users take breaks from the site:

New research suggests that Facebook fatigue may be setting in with some users. Twenty-seven percent of Facebook users surveyed in the U.S. plan to spend less time on the site in 2013, compared with only 3% who plan to spend more time, according to a study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

(Another 69% of Facebook users say they plan to spend the same amount of time on the site this coming year.)

The Pew study also found that 61% of Facebook users have taken a break from the service for several weeks or more. During these breaks, the vast majority of Facebook vacationers don’t delete their profiles…

The reasons people gave for taking a sabbatical from the network were varied. The most common motivation was not having enough time for the site, with 21% of people saying they were just too busy with real-life responsibilities to spend time reading posts, liking and commenting.

Other reasons for leaving: Ten percent called it a waste of time, 10% cited a lack of interest in the content, and 9% said they were unhappy with the amount of drama and gossip on the site. Only 4% of people mentioned privacy and security concerns as their reason for taking a breather.

These findings could counter a common narrative about Facebook use that is based in some real trends. It suggests Facebook users and Internet users in general spend way too much time online, can’t get away from it, and end up in weird and possibly harmful situations (see: Manti Te’o story). The suggestion is that users don’t realize the possibly harmful effects of being on Facebook. These findings counter this narrative: a majority of users do try to get away from it at times. They are not unaware of what is going on and try to get some distance from it.

On the other hand, I don’t think this is necessarily bad news for Facebook. This could simply be a plateauing of a sharp upward rise for Facebook that was untenable over the long haul. In other words, perhaps people simply can’t maintain the amount of time they spend with Facebook or realize they don’t want to. Some people just joined because others have joined. Yet, these findings suggest that people aren’t leaving Facebook altogether even as they take some short breaks. They are trying to find ways to balance their lives with Facebook and still want to participate, even on a reduced basis.

So how much might Facebook do to try to reduce these breaks and have people participating consistently?