It takes discipline not to let social media steal your time.

The words of Alexis Ohanian—“It takes discipline not to let social media steal your time.”—strike at the very heart of our modern age. In them lies a warning that would not have been foreign to the ancients, though spoken now in the language of glowing screens and endless feeds. Time, the one treasure given to all in equal measure, is fragile and easily lost. Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and a voice in the digital world, knows the power and peril of the tools humanity has created. He reminds us that these instruments, though wondrous, are thieves in disguise, eager to claim the hours of our lives unless we guard them with vigilance and discipline.

The ancients understood the sacred weight of time. The Stoics, from Seneca to Marcus Aurelius, warned that men guard their wealth but squander their hours, never realizing that time is the most precious possession. Social media is but a new mask for an ancient danger—the danger of distraction. In olden days, it was idle gossip in the marketplace, frivolous entertainments in the theater, or vanity in the public square. Today, it is the endless scroll, the flashing image, the shallow applause of likes and follows. What has changed is not the danger itself, but its swiftness and reach.

History gives us countless reminders of those who mastered their attention and those who did not. Consider Benjamin Franklin, who built his life on the careful use of hours. He charted his days with discipline, rising early to work, to learn, to create. Had he squandered his time on vanity and idle talk, his discoveries, inventions, and leadership would never have come to be. Franklin teaches us that discipline over time is the root of greatness, just as Ohanian warns us it is the safeguard against theft.

Yet consider also the decline of Rome, where citizens, once strong and disciplined, gave themselves over to endless spectacles in the Coliseum. Days and nights were consumed by blood sport and distraction while the empire rotted within. Their fall is a mirror for us: if we surrender our lives to shallow diversions, we too risk decay. The form may be different, but the essence is the same—an empire undone by stolen time.

Beloved listener, the meaning is clear: discipline is not merely a tool for work, but a shield for the soul. Without it, you will wake one day to find your years vanished, your dreams unpursued, your purpose forgotten. Social media is not evil in itself—it can connect, inform, and inspire. But without discipline, it becomes a master, and you, its servant. To live fully is to reclaim your hours from its grasp and to spend them on what gives life meaning: creation, love, learning, and growth.

The lesson for us is urgent: do not drift. Guard your hours as a warrior guards his weapon. Set boundaries for the glowing screens that hunger for your attention. Choose deliberately when to use them, and for what purpose, lest they devour your days in exchange for nothing. Remember always that your life is measured not in the swipes of your thumb, but in the deeds of your heart and hands.

Practical wisdom demands this: create times of silence where no device calls to you. Place aside your phone at meals, in conversation, in the moments meant for reflection. Set aside sacred hours each day for work, for art, for learning, for the presence of those you love. Let social media be a servant, never a master. In this way, you will reclaim not only your hours, but your soul.

So let Ohanian’s words echo across your heart: “It takes discipline not to let social media steal your time.” Hear in them the ancient call renewed for our age—the call to vigilance, to mastery of the self, to the wise use of fleeting hours. For in the end, time is life, and life is sacred. To guard your time is to guard your destiny. To waste it is to lose everything. Choose discipline, and let your life burn with purpose, not be stolen in silence.