This document discusses research into Autcraft, an online Minecraft server for children with autism and their families. The researchers conducted an ethnography of Autcraft to understand how its community defines and practices sociality. They found that members search for and find community on Autcraft by making friends who understand their experiences. Members define sociality broadly, considering online interactions and participation to be social. The Autcraft community works to create a sense of community by hosting in-game events and sharing experiences online. Overall, the researchers conclude that Autcraft and social media help redefine what it means to be social for those on the autism spectrum.
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"Will I always be not social?": Re-Conceptualizing Sociality in the Context of a Minecraft Community for Autism
1. "Will I always be not social?":
Re-Conceptualizing Sociality in the Context
of a Minecraft Community for Autism
Kathryn E. Ringland*, Christine T. Wolf*, Heather Faucett*,
Lynn Dombrowski**, Gillian R. Hayes*
*Department of Informatics
University of California, Irvine
{kringlan, wolfct, hfaucett, hayesg}@uci.edu
**School of Informatics and Computing
Indiana University, IUPUI
lsdombro@iupui.edu
10. Autcraft
“[the] first Minecraft server dedicated to providing a
safe, fun and learning environment for children on
the autism spectrum and their families” (Autcraft
website)
11
13. Searching For & Finding Community
“…so today i was thinking about how much i have been
bullied and how many friends ditched me. so i need some
advice on how to make friends plz help thx guys” (forums)
15
14. Searching For & Finding Community
“people would swear call me names break my builds
etc…becuz i am defrent… i didnt relize people would be
mean about [the username]… and i liked the name…
theres other people on here [Autcraft] with *autism* or
*Autistic* in there names…” (in-world interview)
16
15. Searching For & Finding Community
“I guess that’s what Autcraft is for, meeting people
who go through the same thing as you, so you don’t
feel alone?” (forum)
17
16. Defining Sociality
“So, I don’t ever [socialize]. The only way i am
social is online. I never hang out with my family or
do anything. The only time i come out of my room is
if we watch a family movie, i play baseball we go for
a car ride or i go to work. Other than that i am in my
room 24/7 on PC, YouTube text etc. Anyone else
like this? Will i always be not social :( I really want
to be social but its hard D:” (forum)
18
18. Defining Sociality
“I love being a member of the [Autcraft] community and
love spending time with my 'family' here. …finally just felt
like I found a place that I fit in. A place I was accepted for
being shy … and just being "different" than others. ...
Most of my life I've never felt like I fit in
anywhere…Here…I’m accepted.” (directed forums)
20
19. Creating Community Online
“Well, the day is coming to a close… Autcraft’s 2nd
birthday. I have been up for a very long time but we
did 4 epic community dragon fights, shared tons of
great memories, and had lots of fun partying in the
ballroom on the server.” (Facebook)
21
20. Creating Community Online
“I've heard from parents that told me that they were able
to see their children interacting with others in the
videos. They loved to see their kids having fun! Another
parent told me that her son saw himself in one of the
videos and he couldn't stop talking about what a great day
it was.” (Facebook)
22
21. Creating Community Online
“…I am still feeling really great [about the event] because
even though they were just words on the screen, I could
see the happiness in so many people today. They had
the time of their lives. And so, I did too.” (Facebook)
23
22. Creating Community Online
“i sometimes ask others to help me… [Usually] i
would show them a picture on how to build it and we
pick either get the items or start the build… i usually
let them start because i am not the best builder” (in-
world interview)
24
23. Creating Community Online
“…while building that village I met this friend…and to this
day he is still my friend…” (directed forums)
25
29. Thank You
31
@liltove
kateringland.com
kateringland@gmail.com
A special thanks to my coauthors and
members of LUCI and STAR for
helping put this presentation together.
And to the Autcraft community for their
continual openness to my presence.
All stock photos in this
presentation were made
available through Death to the
Stock Photo, Unsplash, and
Negative Space to be used
attribution free.
Editor's Notes
Thank you and welcome to my talk. Today I will be presenting will I always be not social, reconceptualizing sociality in the context of a minecraft community for autism.
Humans are inherently social beings. Our entire world is built upon social interactions, meanings, and relationships. However, we are in an age when our ever growing socially oriented internet is challenging ideas of what is appropriate social behavior and what constitutes social interactions and relationships seems to be shifting as more and more of our lives are online.
Individuals with autism face a myriad of challenges, with the severity of these difficulties ranging from one person to the next. Normative face-to-face interactions, for instance, can be hard for those with autism. For example, eye contact, interpreting nonverbal cues, and making coherent verbal utterances can be challenging. When these social interactions are hard to interpret or cause heightened anxiety, they can lead to impoverished relationships and loneliness. In a developing child this can mean developmental delays. In children and adults alike this can lead to an increase risk for depression and generalized anxiety.
Those grappling with these challenges are often seen as having the inability or lack of desire to have social relationships. Today I will explore how one online community for children with autism practices and defines sociality — showing us that sociality in individuals with autism looks different, rather than being nonexistent.
In this talk, I will give a brief background in autism and sociality. Then I will describe the online community, Autcraft, for children with autism. I will then describe some of my results from my digital ethnography within this community.
Social play is an important part of childhood. It is how child develop and practice their social skills. Children engage in a wide range of playful practice roles and test the boundaries of social rules. These playful interactions are vital not only for children to grow into competent, functioning adults, but also to discover who they are and what kind of adults they want to become.
Children with autism run into difficulty because they want to play, but are not able to engage in play in ways other children consider typical. Researchers have worked to help children with autism engage more successfully in social play. This has included developing different technology to support socialization and play, such as via tabletops, tablet, and through social media.
Today I will be looking at how a ecosystem of social media, including a Minecraft virtual world, are being used to help support social play for kids with autism.
Sort of like virtual legos, Minecraft is a customizable, open-ended, creative space. Players can dig up blocks within the virtual world—the entire world is made up of these blocks that are randomly generated at world creation. Blocks and materials harvested in the world can then be crafted into objects, technology, or placed back in the world as the player wishes. Construction materials can be created to build house, castles, or whatever the player can think of. Minecraft is accessible even for the novice user. It does not require programming skills to create things, unlike other virtual worlds like Second Life. So the learning curve is a little less steep. This makes it especially great for younger children. There is already infrastructure in place for in-world socializing, such as text chat and avatar interactions.
I will now give a quick overview of my methods while conducting this work. This work is part of an on-going digital ethnography in a Minecraft virtual world, Autcraft. My work to date includes approximately 80 hours of in-world participant observation since the spring of 2014 as well as participating in in-world chat and community forum posts.
Autcraft is the first Minecraft server dedicated to providing a safe, fun learning environment for children on the autism spectrum and their families. It is run completely by parent volunteers and is sustained from donations by community members. The server welcomes children with autism, their family and friends.
Participants are mainly pre-teens who have been diagnosed with autism or similar neurodevelopment disorder, but Autcraft also includes adults with autism and children as young as 6. Autcraft currently has more than 7,000 whitelisted or “approved” players. One rule of the server is that everyone speak English—however, users come from all over the globe, with large groups from North America, the UK, and Australia.
In addition to taking field notes while in-world, I have also conducted interview with parents and children within the Autcraft community. Also, in order to get a full picture of the Autcraft community, I also analyzed data collected from the Autcraft website and forums, Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch. In order to protect their privacy, all the usernames presented here and in my written work are pseudonyms. Screen shots of builds are for the most part taken from the Autcraft virtual world, but I did alter some images to protect privacy. Also, all the video and text chat screen shots in this presentation are taken from my own private server and not from Autcraft.
In addition to taking field notes while in-world, I have also conducted interview with parents and children within the Autcraft community. Also, in order to get a full picture of the Autcraft community, I also analyzed data collected from the Autcraft website and forums, Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch. In order to protect their privacy, all the usernames presented here and in my written work are pseudonyms. Screen shots of builds are for the most part taken from the Autcraft virtual world, but I did alter some images to protect privacy. Also, all the video and text chat screen shots in this presentation are taken from my own private server and not from Autcraft. To analyze my data, I used an inductive approach, memoing and coding to find themes within the data and comparing them to that of my co authors.
I’d like to talk about what drives these children to seek out Autcraft in the first place. Large portions of the population of Autcraft are pre-adolescent and adolescents with autism, and as such are acutely aware of the fact that they feel and seem different from their peers. This perceived difference could result in feelings of loneliness, realized loneliness, and even bullying. Individuals seek out the Autcraft community in order to relieve their own loneliness and find likeminded peers. As this community member posted in the forums, “so today i was thinking about how much i have been bullied and how many friends ditched me. so i need some advice on how to make friends plz help thx guys.”
As some community members found, before joining Autcraft, being different could be socially problematic on other servers. One child, for example, included “Autistic” in their username because they were proud to identify as part of the autistic community. However, labeling themselves as such got them into trouble. In an interview, they said, “people would swear call me names break my builds etc…becuz i am defrent… i didnt relize people would be mean about [the username]… and i liked the name… theres other people on here [Autcraft] with *autism* or *Autistic* in there names…”
The text-based aspect of the community’s communications are probably also a big draw for these kids as they are looking for a place to vent their frustrations, ask for help, and, in return, eventually help others. In response to asking for help making friends, one community member replied, “I guess that’s what Autcraft is for, meeting people who go through the same thing as you, so you don’t feel alone?” These kids describe hanging out with their friends on the Autcraft virtual world much in the same way other youth online have. They spend time with their Autcraft friends online by interacting through forums, instant messaging, and “hanging out” in the Autcraft virtual world. And although not typically physically collocated, these youth on Autcraft consider these relationships to be meaningful friendships.
In order to understand how the kids on Autcraft are creating and maintaining these friendships, we must explore how they are defining what it is to be social. One member posted in the forums, “So, I don’t ever [socialize]. The only way i am social is online. I never hang out with my family or do anything. The only time i come out of my room is if we watch a family movie, i play baseball we go for a car ride or i go to work. Other than that i am in my room 24/7 on PC, YouTube text etc. Anyone else like this? Will i always be not social :( I really want to be social but its hard D:” While not understanding why he doesn’t socialize, this community member describes a myriad of social activities he engages in.
And in response to this post, another member posted, “even being on Autcraft is social.” For many on Autcraft, being helpful and supportive is one of the most important parts of their sociality. The community has found it important enough to write into their rules and actively encourages this behavior through rewards, such as member of the week and the title of junior helper.
Along with being supportive and helpful is the theme of acceptance. Members actively accept each other for who they are, making being different more tolerable and reducing the social isolation and loneliness that frequently surrounds difference. One parent wrote about herself, “I love being a member of the [Autcraft] community and love spending time with my 'family' here. …finally just felt like I found a place that I fit in. A place I was accepted for being shy … and just being "different" than others. ... Most of my life I've never felt like I fit in anywhere…Here…I’m accepted.”
Autcraft as a community actively works to create a sense of family and togetherness. They do this through various means, including throwing large server-wide events that spill out beyond the virtual world onto the other various affiliated social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch. For Autcraft 2nd anniversary, the community threw a birthday party. In a Facebook post, one of the administrators recapped the day, “we did 4 epic community dragon fights, shared tons of great memories, and had lots of fun partying in the ballroom on the server.”
During these events, parents, who did not necessarily play Minecraft themselves, were able to see their children interacting with others during the events. Again, the administrator recapping the event said, “I've heard from parents that told me that they were able to see their children interacting with others in the videos. They loved to see their kids having fun! Another parent told me that her son saw himself in one of the videos and he couldn't stop talking about what a great day it was.”
Finally, members were able to share in a joyful event. “…I am still feeling really great [about the event] because even though they were just words on the screen, I could see the happiness in so many people today. They had the time of their lives. And so, I did too.” And even though he says they are just words on the screen, it is clear that members of this community do not actually feel that way. Though they are interacting mainly via text and inworld actions, their interactions still have weight and meaning. And even though it is just text, they are still able to express joy and frustration, and ultimately forge meaningful friendships with one another.
Social gatherings are not all large-scale events though. Sometimes, a community member will want to get a small group together to create something within the virtual world. In an interview, one player said “i sometimes ask others to help me… [Usually] i would show them a picture on how to build it and we pick either get the items or start the build… i usually let them start because i am not the best builder.” He explained his process for leading his team in a building project. He would send images of the project ideas to his team on the Autcraft website messenger. These ideas would usually come from Google Images or through Minecraft videos on YouTube. The team would then coordinate the actual act of building inworld through the virtual world chat functionality.
One member said, “while building that village I met this friend…and to this day he is still my friend.” These small build projects allow for the members to get to know one another and work towards a common goal.
To conclude my discussion about Autcraft, I would like to leave you with a vignette adapted from my field notes. A member asks in chat if anyone wants to mine with them. Another player volunteers. Together they go to the mining world armed with pickaxes. There is very little talking, the first player takes the lead in choosing a dig site. Together they work in parallel digging down into the earth, looking for minerals to take home to use as building materials. When they hit lava, the first player says he has to get off for now because dinner is ready and asks the second player if they will be on again tomorrow. The second player says yes. The first player logs off.
Members of the Autcraft community have been organically incorporating many different communication channels to support the interactions of community members. These practices have created a communication ecology, enabling sociality by providing flexible means of social expression. By examining this network of communication channels, we are able to tease apart a variety of social behaviors that members of the Autcraft community engage in. Witnessing how even taking a screenshot or video of game play or building a fort can be seen as a social community-building practice. There are many ways to be social and Autcraft’s communication ecology gives members technological options to express that diversity.
However, using computers to mediate communications will not work for every child in every situation. The children in Autcraft must also learn how social engagement works in other parts of their world, such as at home or in school. A constraint of this work is we cannot know what kinds of social behavior they are exhibiting offline—we only know what they are reporting to others in Autcraft. Whether the relationships they are building and the sociality they are exhibiting in this online space carries over into their offline lives is open for future investigation.
Pre-established online relationships can pave the way to in-person connections. For this population in particular, the online environment may be the first place these children have ever experienced social support and friendship. Having success in these environments then lays the basic foundation for practicing and honing a wide variety of social skills to be used in a variety of settings, which is a good first but not final step towards an enhanced social experience.
To conclude, the Autcraft community exemplifies how individuals with autism can use an ecosystem of social media, including web forums, instant messenger, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a Minecraft virtual world, to support their own sociality. And through the practice of this sociality, they are able to forge meaningful relationships and engage in a range of social experiences. Our exploration of Autcraft adds to a growing literature on social media ecologies by showing how flexible, multimodal communication not only “keeps the game going” but also can have profound effects for self-expression and feelings of social belonging.
Thank you and at this time I am happy to take questions.
