5 Things I’ve Learned About Boys and Minecraft
Art from Minecraft
By Jonathon Reed
As part of Next Gen Men’s summer programming and NGM Alliance, I’ve been using Minecraft on a regular basis and spending a lot of time with boys for whom it’s a major hobby. These are five things (some pro, some con) that I think parents with Minecraft-enthusiast sons should know.
It builds positive qualities and useful skills.
At its core, Minecraft is about creativity. Through their creative projects, I have seen boys gain the confidence that comes from mastery, enjoy the freedom of exploration and build relational skills of teamwork and collaboration. Boys’ experiences within Minecraft often involve spatial engineering and resource management, even artistic expression—you can use pistons and redstone to create working machines, or a loom to design your own banners.
It’s like the wood-block toys of generations gone by, or LEGO before LEGO went corporate.
It’s expansive.
Most video games have a predetermined world designed to limit players’ imagination and experience into a set storyline. Later iterations of Minecraft would add an adventure mode with a storyline, but from its outset, Minecraft’s purpose has been open space and free-rein creation.
Its ‘biomes’ span from mountains to ocean coastlines to the Nether underworld. It’s infinite.
It can be hard to turn off.
Partly because of its scope, and partly because of the unending nature of creative projects, Minecraft can be hard to turn off.
Story games like Resident Evil and RDR2 come with chapters and save points that make it easier to call it a night. By contrast, multiplayer online battle arenas like Fortnite and Warzone become addictive because they use the pregame lobby to pair the frustration of losing a round with the anticipation of starting the next one.
Minecraft doesn’t have clear boundaries, which does make it hard to step away from.
It can be a way to connect with friends.
Minecraft offers an activity with shared purpose, which is often a helpful for ways for boys to connect with each other.
I know more than a few young people who use Minecraft as a way to hang out with their friends, particularly as social distancing and online learning have come into effect. Checking if anyone was online for Minecraft was a frequent refrain during our summer programming, which is why we’ve kept our Minecraft Realm online for NGM Alliance.
It matters that you’re interested.
I’ve heard from parents who are trying to better understand how to set limits to the amount of time their son spends on screens. My advice is to approach his interest with curiosity rather than judgement. Ask detailed questions about what he’s building, watching or thinking about. Once he knows you care about his passion, you can talk honestly and collaboratively to set boundaries on video gaming and set aside time for other interests and hobbies.
No boy wants to feel judged. Every boy wants to feel empowered and mature.
Click here to find out more about NGM Alliance.
Getting to know Minecraft is a way for us to strengthen trusting relationships with our boys. If you can start proving to a kid when he’s 11 that you are willing to put in the work to understand him and his interests, experiences and mistakes; you build trust that will pay off when he’s 15 and going through things that have higher stakes than a Minecraft build.
ICYMI About Minecraft
Minecraft is much more than ‘LEGO online’—it’s a creative classroom tool (Independent)
The Minecraft Generation (The New York Times)
An Open-Letter to the Dad That Deleted His Son’s Minecraft World (Medium)
Written by Next Gen Men Program Manager Jonathon Reed as part of Learnings & Unlearnings, a weekly newsletter reflecting on our experiences working with boys and young men. Subscribe to get Learnings & Unlearnings delivered to your email inbox.