Interactive vs. Passive Screen Time: What's Worse?

The answer may sound counterintuitive.

Not all screen time is the same. There is fascinating research that shows a big difference between passive and interactive screen time, and interactive turns out to be worse for kids than passive.

Ironically, interactive screen time is what many parents and teachers assume is better for kids. It is commonly viewed as stimulating and “educational”, the sort of activity that involves holding a tablet or phone in hand, swiping through apps, using a keyboard or console, engaging with a game of some sort.

Passive screen time refers to watching a screen that is set up at a distance, without interacting with it in any way. Usually, it means watching a movie or TV show. But if that same movie or show is played on a tablet or phone in one’s hand, it then becomes interactive.

This information may sound counterintuitive. Doesn’t an interactive game use a child’s brain in a better way than if they are just sitting like couch potatoes, absorbing content on a distant screen? The answer to that is no. It is tied to what is really going on in the brain when a child is consuming media. Interacting with media is highly stimulating, but in a bad way.

“Interaction is in and of itself one of the major factors that contributes to hyperarousal, so sooner or later, any potential benefit of interactivity is overridden by stress-related reactions,” writes psychiatrist Victoria Dunckley in Reset Your Brain. “Furthermore, interactivity is what keeps the user engaged by providing a sense of control, choices, and immediate gratification, but unfortunately these attributes are the same ones that activate reward circuits and lead to prolonged, compulsive, and even addictive use.”

In other words, interactive media is designed to keep kids coming back for more, despite the fact their young and developing brains cannot handle it. And, perhaps most insidiously, it is disguised in such a way that parents are duped into thinking that they are giving their kid some sort of mental boost.

Interactive ≠ Educational

Parents should be wary of any educational claims on apps or games, as these are not substantiated. The American Academy of Pediatrics has found that most “educational” apps have not been developed with input from development specialists and fail to follow any established curriculum. So, a developer can say whatever they want about whatever they’ve invented.

Nor does the research support the idea that interactive screen-based learning helps at all. In Who’s Raising the Kids, Susan Linn writes that, in the United States, “on average, kids using tablets in ‘all or most of all’ of their classes have reading scores the equivalent of a full grade lower on assessments than do kids who never used tablets in their classroom.” That’s a mind-boggling finding, when you stop to think about it.

Linn also delves into the popular math game Prodigy that claims to “make kids love learning math,” but when she called the company support line to ask for supporting research, they said they had none. Nor do experts buy Prodigy’s claim. Rheta Rubenstein, a professor emerita of mathematics education at the University of Michigan, tells Linn, “Not only is math totally extrinsic to the game, there’s nothing in it to help students actually learn math.”

Interactivity Impedes Sleep

Dr. Dunckley goes on to cite a 2012 study that looked at the sleep habits of over 2,000 children who ranged from kindergarten to high school. Researchers found that it only took 30 minutes of interactive screen time to disrupt sleep quality, whereas it took two hours of passive screen time to impede sleep.

Another study found that children’s sleep and memory were significantly impaired following a single session of excessive computer gaming, whereas a single session of excessive TV viewing had only a mild effect on kids’ sleep and memory.

A 2015 systemic literature review found that interactive screens (computer, video games, mobile devices) are “most consistently observed to be associated with adverse sleep outcomes,” while the lowest-risk category for adverse outcomes is television.

The Lesser of Two Evils

This does not mean that TV is good. Both forms of media, interactive and passive, are associated with plenty of negative outcomes, like attention problems, poorer reading abilities and reduced vocabulary, fewer opportunities for conversation with adults, increased depression and anxiety, compromised sleep, irritability, weight gain, and diminished creativity, but interactive is much worse.

Dunckley writes, “Essentially, a modest amount of calm TV viewing doesn’t create the same quality or level of hyperarousal, agitation, and dysregulation that interactive screen time does.”

If you have to choose between the two, go with passive over interactive. Opting for a well-made movie that has a compelling narrative arc, a natural beginning and end, is easier for a child’s brain to comprehend. They will understand when it is over, that it’s time to get up and walk away from the TV, and go outside to play.

Auto-playing YouTube videos are the opposite of that, with no indicators to a child’s brain that they have had enough. That is also why kids tend to accept TV limits more readily and calmy than limits on tablet or smartphone use, which are often met with tears and pushback, if not full-blown temper tantrums.

I am not condoning TV (I don’t even have one in my house), but when I do let my kids watch something on my laptop, it is always a movie. They understand its natural trajectory, and they know that, once it’s over, it is time to move on. Furthermore, if a child learns that screens are only viewed in a stationary place and are not portable, they will be less inclined to ask for them elsewhere.

Don’t fall for the myth that educational games on the iPad are somehow a good thing for your child. They hyper-stimulate, leaving you with an amped-up child who may struggle greatly to come down from that heightened state of neurological arousal. You’ll make your own life easier by simply cutting those interactive games and shows out of your life.

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