According to a 2018 study, most UK children will spend four hours a day in front of a screen. There’s no reason to doubt this claim, and parents must make informed and conscious decisions about the media they allow their children to consume.

Considering the amount of time spent playing video games, it’s understandable that parents are eager to learn more about the popular Minecraft game. Whether or not Minecraft has the ability to increase children’s IQs and be beneficial to their brains is a potential area of concern.

So here’s what we think:

Does playing Minecraft make you smarter?

Minecraft is one of the best non-violent, educational games out there. Programming skills, teamwork, problem-solving, and project management can all be taught to children using this platform. It also provides an excellent environment for fostering creativity and “out of the box” thinking.

According to several studies and opinion pieces, playing Minecraft can help you become smarter.

For example, a 2017 study at Glasgow University linked playing video games and Minecraft to future success in college. According to the study’s findings, people who played the game were able to demonstrate better communication, adaptability, and resourcefulness than those who didn’t.

The game’s design is largely responsible for the majority of these advantages. Children are largely in charge of how they interact with the game because there is no real storyline and only a limited amount of guidance.

The question is whether or not playing Minecraft is good for your brain.

That’s what we believe about Minecraft. A researcher at Glasgow University shares this view, and he told the newspaper The Daily Mail that he thinks this:

Playing commercial video games can improve the ability to communicate, adapt, and be resourceful, suggesting that video games may have a place in higher education. Moreover, the results show that graduate skills can be improved in a short period, with the gains reported here being achieved over eight weeks and representing only 14 hours of gameplay.”

Children, in particular, may benefit academically and intellectually from their time spent playing Minecraft.

If you start a game of Minecraft, you’ll be presented with a randomly generated, block-based map. These blocks can be taken apart and put back together in various ways, making it a bit like a LEGO project.

In a new world, children can create anything they want: a house, a castle, an underground haven, a town, a farm, or whatever else they can imagine.

In their investigations, children will discover that they are capable of creating devices that will make everyday tasks easier to deal with. The UK’s future workforce needs to learn the basics of coding through Redstone blocks, which allow children to build completely customizable machines.

Thanks to the multiplayer option, children can also play with their friends on a shared map. As players divide up building spaces and communal tasks, this encourages open communication and cooperation. While children working alone can produce impressive work, working in groups can yield truly breathtaking results.