"Facebook is a disease" - Says Sri Lankan Prime Minister. What's your take?

There are ongoing studies at many top medical centres on this. FB addiction is now considered a psychological condition with overtones of Narcissism.

Few years back (almost 3 years, being specific), I have been detoxified from FB. So, for me it's not disease but a drug which is hard to forbid, but not impossible.
I am using Google+ since last 4 months & it's one world better than FB as I can talk & share about technical stuffs (Linux,Embedded systems ,etc.etc.)

FB is evil (for me) hence I don't use it.

it is a disease if-
1) you waste time chatting to people just to kill time or to the people you don't know. about the topics which are not relevant or has no meaning.
2) fight on those pages which say bad about others person's belief or culture.
3) spread hatred among two communities
4) upload random pictures(seriously, one of my relative met an accident on highway and instead of taking care of his 3 daughters, he was busy clicking picture of damaged car and uploading it on facebook).

it can be productive if-
1) you use it to stay in touch with your friends.
2) i must say it is a very good medium to know whats going on in world.
3) be in touch with your ideal ( i personally follow DIG Navneet Sakera as i respect him allot and want to know if there is some movement going on in my city )
4) its a very good medium if you want to spread some information( like i do when i want to circulate some important information in class being a class representative)

If you give alcohol to society ,
some will refuse to take it, some will use as medicine (Homeopathy), some will consume it casually and
Rest of them will drink blindly because it's free and will be drunk all day.
Now if govt thinks it's not beneficial for society they have to impose ban

Same think happens with Internet freedom at workplace. Some companies think it's waste of time so they do not allow most of the websites.

HE IS 101 % RIGHT !

Facebook is in no way productive to any one.

From my experience on Facebook I have realised that it fuels a person’s narcissistic and voyeuristic side. When people visit a hip place like restaurant, movie theatres, historical place or even an airport they have an irresistible need to check-in their location. Plus every now and then I have seen many friends on FB deactivating their account for some time just to get rid of this compulsion. But after a few weeks they return. I do not agree Facebook is a disease but definitely an addiction.

Yeah, it's contagious. Do one thing, arrest Mark Zuckerberg and lock him up! I dont understand why do people even have this discussion? Nobody is forcing you to join FB. It you can't control it, it's not internet's problem. Morons!

@#-Link-Snipped-# Agreed on that! Don't like it ? Don't use it. Simple.

I seem to have a different opinion. If there's corruption everywhere - should we just 'shut our eyes' and let it happen? If there's nudity all over TV, should we 'shut our TVs' and switch over to radio?

PensuIt you can't control it, it's not internet's problem. Morons!

With that logic, everyone who's protesting against corruption and bad governments is a moron. The advice for all them them should be - just ignore it if you can't control it.

With the same logic, people should also stop complaining about bad roads. If you want good roads, you go and construct good roads - or simply stop complaining about them. Take a walk to all the places if you don't like roads.

Facebook is a major part of the Internet. Yeah, it's easy to exercise self-control; but it does affect people's lives and as a society - people should be concerned if it's a 'disease' or it's affecting people's lives in a negative way.

People should be concerned.

Good point, but just one difference. Corruption is a problem for society that harms people and facebook is a service that helps people. There is no way you can compare these two on same scale. The issue is addiction, if people are addicted to it, it's their fault. People get addicted to sex, and they end up having physical relations with multiple partners, cheating a lot of people in the process. That doesn't mean that sex is a disease!

@#-Link-Snipped-# The examples you mentioned (like nudity, badroads, corrupt govt.etc.) have 100% negative impact on life of human-being. While on other hand, Facebook have negative as well as positive impact.
It was me, who got addicted to it so I have to work on it to get my momentum back while other people uses it daily & don't have any adverse effect on them, they're in full control.

Hence, I think it all depends on how we use it.

My concern is about saying that people should just ignore what they dont like.

Kaustubh KatdareMy concern is about saying that people should just ignore what they dont like.

Nobody said anything about ignoring. The point is if you can't control yourself, dont blame the temptation.

I am an avid user of Facebook and i admin a lot of pages and group

One thing I see is I keep control what I use in FB. In my opinion it is just another site where ideas are exchanged if you get obsessed with it. You are wrong some where not the tool with which you are obsessed

And one more question Internet as a whole has lots of loop holes Why are the people and Government of Sri Lanka even using it?

This statement has the same meaning as the statement in question here

There are people who can't figure out what's good and what's bad for them. For example, teenagers and kids smoking or consuming alcohol. People need to be told about making the right choice. I think it's very incorrect to 'assume' that grown ups (the adults aka the 18+) are fully mature to make right decisions. I know several people will disagree with me on this point; but you still have people who can't decide what career they want and other important choices in life.

If something is affecting people on a mass level - people should be concerned about it. I'm not against or for FB; because I don't feel the need to use it. But when I see gross waste of time simply because people don't know how to control themselves; I get a reason to be concerned.

I am happy that i have landed here at right time.
My perception is that there is a other side of the facebook where many would have not seen.It all depends upon the passion,attitude,interest and every character of a person. I personally use it to share my happiness and to catch up with my old buddies.Other side of it- There are various pages which prove to be a great one which can even act as a medium of sharing knowledge and news.I use it to share my thoughts with artists around the world and learn from them.Compare my work with others and enhance my talent. Some of them use it for social welfare activities and dont forget that even in Delhi rape cases and many other social problems, Students
used it as a medium and communicated. So it all depends upon the usage.
Many of the people use it simply to prove their presence in it.Facebook has now become a place of SHOW OFF's and some people fight for best player/actor/politician/etc. So the solution depends upon individual who indulge in it

Not bad Minions

I see the point in this way, if you are a normal user of Facebook and use it to enhance something, and use it for good. There is no harm using it. Please go ahead and use it.

The discussion altogether is for people who are addicted, I have few friends who post a photograph of theirs and look for likes and comments every 2 mins.

I have seen this obsession, I have uploaded my photograph on the same day and at night I checked all the comments or whatever. So The discussion is to be made on people who are just wasting their time.

We spoke about corruption, that means we are only fighting against government officials who involved in it, a govt person who is not involved has no harm with people's fight against corruption.

So people who think we are using FB for good , please keep quiet you are learning something then you are not the target audience here.

There is a village in our district, where people used to drink everyday and do nothing. All of sudden a young team of individuals stopped the liquor production and sale, all the people who used to drink (with very hard earned money, some times selling gold) have stopped and are doing something useful for their lives.

So guys, the point is if people who are hooked to facebook , if they dont use it probably they will be productive!!

I am sure, if FB is allowed in our office , our productivity goes down.