In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) first published a guideline on media exposure to infants (children under 2 years). In it, they recommend that “television and other entertainment media” be completely avoided in this population. (AAP, 1999) As more studies examining this topic were conducted and their findings published, the AAP reviewed the evidence and the AAP followed its guidelines in 2011. (Brown, 2011) Considering Given the ubiquitous penetration of television and screens into American culture, their potential benefits and harms on children's development are paramount. As such, the AAP guidelines and the weight they carry must be continually evaluated. This article will argue that the AAP recommendation should be maintained for infants (under 2 years of age) because screen-based entertainment media are educationally ineffective and replace much-needed social interaction. I will review the literature discussing the effectiveness and impact of television and screens, then explore the essential role of social interaction in the developmental process of infants. Educational television programs and DVDs aimed at infants have been found to be largely ineffective in improving infant speech and speech. language acquisition. Counting the number of new words an infant learns is a good way to quantify the effectiveness of their word acquisition. A study conducted by DeLoache et al. Exposed 12- to 18-month-old infants to large amounts of popular infant programming for 4 weeks at home aimed at evaluating the impact of this program on infants' word learning. (DeLoache, 2010) Before and after the 4-week exposure period, children were asked to point to certain objects shown in the video. Children... middle of paper ...... television script. Child Development, 74(1), 221-237. Rideout, VJ, Vanderwater, EA, & Wartella, EA (2006). From Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers. Roseberry, S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R.M. (2013). Skype me! Socially contingent interactions help toddlers learn language. Child Development, 85(3), 956-970. Saffran, J.R. (2002). Constraints on statistical language learning. Journal of Memory and Language, 47(1), 172-196. Schmidt, ME, Pempek, TA, Kirkorian, HL, Lund, AF, & Anderson, DR (2008). The effects of background television on the play behavior of very young children. Child Development, 79(4), 1137-1151. Zimmerman, FJ, Christakis, DA, & Meltzoff, AN (2007). Associations between media viewing and language development in children under 2 years of age. Journal of Pediatrics, 151(4), 364-368.