Active investing means selecting individual shares or funds in the hope of doing better than the market as a whole, whether you do it yourself or pay a manager to do it. It offers the appeal of higher returns and the interest of making your own choices, but it takes time, skill and nerve, and it usually comes with higher costs.
Passive investing takes a simpler route, using low-cost index funds to track the whole market rather than trying to outguess it. It gives up the chance of beating the market in exchange for broad diversification, very low fees and far less effort. A large body of evidence shows that, after costs, most active approaches fail to beat a simple index fund over the long term, which is a big part of why passive investing has become so popular.
The two are not mutually exclusive. Some investors keep the bulk of their money in low-cost index funds for stability and use a smaller portion to pick individual shares they find interesting. Whichever path you choose, being aware of the costs and the effort involved helps you set realistic expectations.
This content is general information, not investment advice.