Rebecca Manzi A mother replaced modern cartoons with '90s classics for a week, finding her kids calmer and more engaged—echoing what science says about the dangers of overstimulating media.
In an age dominated by hyper-fast videos, frenetic TikTok loops, and overstimulated content cycles, one American mother decided to hit pause—literally. Ariel Shearer, mother of four children all under six, embarked on a curious, if nostalgic, experiment: for one week, she turned off modern programming and let her kids watch nothing but cartoons from the 1990s.
It was part curiosity, part concern. Like many parents, Shearer felt uneasy watching her kids sink deeper into a vortex of noisy, hyperactive content. So she looked back, not forward—and pressed play on a different kind of screen time.
How the kids changed
For seven days, Ariel’s children were introduced to the calm world of Franklin the Turtle, Bear in the Big Blue House, Rugrats, and Dora the Explorer—gentler shows, slower paced, with simple narratives rooted in everyday life. The results? Immediate and striking.
“The kids were just… calmer,” Shearer observed. They lost interest in the screen more quickly, got up mid-episode to play with each other, and most surprisingly, didn’t beg for “just one more.” The usual meltdowns at the end of screen time simply didn’t happen. The shows, she noted, didn’t seem engineered to keep them hooked, but rather to entertain without overwhelming.
Instead of zoning out, her children began moving around, inventing games—even while the TV was still playing. The house was, in her words, more peaceful. And while the VHS tapes brought their own vintage quirks, it didn’t matter. What mattered was the mood in the room.
What the science says
Shearer’s experience isn’t just anecdotal whimsy. There’s actual research behind her intuition. Studies—including those published by the National Institutes of Health—have shown that just a few minutes of hyperfast cartoons can temporarily reduce cognitive functioning in children. Rapid pacing, chaotic editing, and flashy visuals overstimulate young brains, making it harder for them to focus, regulate emotions, or engage in imaginative play.
By contrast, slower-paced, more structured content helps preserve attention span, emotional regulation, and creativity. In other words, Shearer’s throwback week may have been a nostalgic novelty, but it aligns closely with what neuroscience has been warning for years: not all screen time is equal.
The surprise of simplicity
What began as a playful “what if?” became an eye-opening reminder. The cartoons of the past—those soft-toned, minimally scored, patiently paced stories—still hold up, not just as entertainment, but as tools for healthy child development.
Ariel Shearer’s experiment wasn’t meant to start a movement. But in a world where children’s entertainment is increasingly engineered for engagement at all costs, her choice to go analog—even just for a week—was a gentle rebellion. And maybe, just maybe, there’s still room on the shelf for a dusty old VHS tape.
Source: ariel.shearer/Instagram
