By: Nour Ghali: Department of Research, Strategic Studies and International Relations

We’ve all seen it: the ‘iPad trance.’ It is the defining image of the ‘iPad Kids’ generation, where a toddler in a stroller or a child at the dinner table, eyes glazed and thumb swiping, oblivious to the barking dog or the surrounding din of conversation. In the classroom, the scene is similar, with fingers tapping on glass instead of pencils scratching on paper. For a decade, we’ve marketed these devices as windows to the world. But for the ‘iPad kid,’ the screen is increasingly becoming a wall that can inadvertently shut out the world’s sensory richness and social interactions necessary for healthy development.

This isn’t to say that technology is the enemy. The iPad and the laptop are undeniable lifelines for exhausted parents, vital tools for students with disabilities, and game-changers for accessibility. Yet, we are at a tipping point. It is time to stop asking only what the iPad can do for our kids and start asking what it might be taking away. When the screen becomes a child’s primary environment rather than a secondary tool, we risk trading foundational cognitive and social development for short-term quiet. To raise a more well-rounded generation, we need to advocate for ‘high-touch’ policies that prioritize tactile learning and physical socialization. Tablets are an important tool in education, but they shouldn’t be the only tool.

The Waldorf/Steiner philosophy is a school of thought that promotes hands-on learning along with real-world interactions in education. The Waldorf principle encourages distinct development phases, 7 years per phase, for children. The first phase is chiefly concerned with the growth of the body and the development of the senses. In practice, that means in the pre-school period, the child’s engagement with their environment occurs through interactions with teachers and peers in real-world experiences and not on screens. The use of electronic media at this age, therefore, is not beneficial to the child’s development and could harm social development and eyesight. Electronic media is best introduced slowly. Building up true digital readiness through ‘indirect media education’, and cultivating cognitive and sensory skills should happen in the physical world first, so that children can eventually master digital devices later in life.

The data suggests our brains agree. Writing modality has a profound impact on word recall and recognition. In studies comparing pen and paper, laptop typing, and iPad keyboards, handwriting consistently results in significantly improved word recall. This carries over to the sciences, too; students who type their lessons often show lower terminological accuracy and a shallower understanding of the information. Handwriting activates a broad network of brain regions involved in motor, sensory, and cognitive processing. Typing engages fewer of these neural circuits, leading to more passive cognitive engagement. The facts prove it: a study on writing modality shows that handwriting affects writing skills with an average score of 82.55, while typing affects writing skills with an average score of 70.14. This study demonstrated that handwriting has a better impact on writing skills than typing. Students who wrote by hand produced more structured writing in terms of idea organization, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Typing helped with speed, but was lacking in terms of idea processing and writing structure. We have traded the pen for the keyboard in the name of efficiency, but if we want students to actually retain what they learn, we cannot afford to let the tactile, brain-boosting practice of handwriting become a relic of the past.

The cost is physical as well. When children manipulate toys, use scissors, or draw, they develop essential coordination involving muscle physiology and haptic perception. Touchscreens, by contrast, require only basic tapping and zooming. This lack of physical resistance can have a detrimental effect on fine motor skills, especially when children aged 3 to 12 spend over two-thirds of their daytime hours on sedentary activities.

Australia’s recent decision to ban social media for those under sixteen signals a global realization that the “digital-first” experiment has consequences. Beyond the risks of depression, anxiety, and body image issues, we are seeing algorithms serve violent or extremist content to children. Furthermore, as social media platforms shift from social connection to consumerism, they become marketplaces for harmful substances like vapes, targeting a younger, more impressionable audience that might not have the same discernment for advertisements. It can seem unrealistic to completely prevent children under the age of 14 from using smartphones, as has long been advocated. However, there have been changes in the attitudes towards media use by children. For example, California limits the use of phones for students while on campus, Utah in the United States is introducing a media curfew for minors, Sweden is subjecting the currently obligatory use of media in primary schooling, and in Greystones in Ireland the use of smartphones by children in primary school is taboo, where 95% of parents participated in an initiative supported by the Irish government to make sure that their young children do not use smartphones at home either.

Research suggests that instead of following sound pedagogical theory, many schools have adopted digital devices simply ‘because they are there,’ resulting in a pendulum syndrome that prioritizes tech-integration over the tactile, social-constructivist learning processes essential for child development. History shows us that the introduction of a new technology usually undergoes a series of phases, often referred to as the “hype cycle”. After the initial phase of enthusiasm, society starts to become aware that the new technology could come with unwanted side effects.

To correct this lurch, we should adopt a “Tactile-First” 70/30 curriculum, ensuring that 70% of foundational learning, especially handwriting, drawing, and manual arts like cutting and colouring, remains analog to preserve essential motor skills. While Australia’s blunt ban on social media highlights a valid crisis, a more effective path involves integrating the Waldorf/Steiner philosophy in education and introducing “Digital Literacy” as a mandatory subject that teaches children to navigate algorithms safely rather than just locking them out. This approach keeps the iPad as a valuable supplementary tool but stops it from replacing the physical “social friction” found in device-free sanctuaries or the nervous-system-reset provided by nature-based learning. Through establishing these boundaries, we ensure that as technology evolves, it remains a tool we use, rather than an environment that replaces the tactile and interpersonal foundations of being human.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with letting kids use iPads for entertainment, games, or reading. These are marvels of the modern age. The goal is not to banish the screen, but to ensure it doesn’t replace the world. We must ensure that the digital tool remains a supplement to education, not the primary medium through which our children develop and learn to be human.

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Nour Ghali is a researcher at Badr University’s Centre for Global Affairs. Her work focuses on public policy, comparative politics, and socio-economic equity in the MENA region. She specializes in policy analysis and translating complex issues into accessible insights for broader audiences.