Arizona State University • The topic that I will be discussing for the argument of definition project is the word family. The term family has gained so many different definitions since the fifteenth century when it first came about. However our world has changed since the fifteen century and the word has changed with it. For example, now that adoptions can occur almost anyone can be considered a family. I ABSTRACT personally believe that everybody should be informed that the word family is not cut down to one specific definition. • Keywords: Family, blood related, definitions. DEFINITION OF FAMILY • The word family first came about in the fifteenth century. The definition that was told then was, “a group of individuals living under one roof that included blood relations and servants”(Words, 1998). The word has been redefined multiple times ever since. For example, in the eighteenth century the definition of the word was, “those descended, or claiming descent, from a common ancestor”(Words, 1998). MY PERSONAL DEFINITION • Family is often defined as a group of people that consist of parents and a child who live under the same roof. I on the other hand believe otherwise. I don’t think that a family is defined as a group of people who are blood related, or a mother, father and a kid living together in one house. Personally, I believe that family is considered to be people who are constantly there for you and love you unconditionally no matter who they are in your life. I think a family can be a mom, dad and children. Two dads/moms and their kids, a team, friends, etc. • “Family is a group of people (not necessarily blood related) whom you love, trust, respect, support, and rely on through good, bad and hard times” (Sahagun, 2018) • “Family is a group of people you can always count on to bail you out of trouble or in this case a last minute project, but will at the same time love PERSONAL you unconditionally” (Luna, 2018) DEFINITIONS OF • “A family consist of people who are open minded, understanding, OTHERS respectful, good listeners, able to take criticism, take advice, caring, loving, trustworthy and people who give unconditional love” (Luna V, 2018). • “Family: group of people that is very important to you..” (Corletto R, 2018). PERSONAL DEFINITIONS OF OTHERS CONT. • “Family is having each others back no matter what, even if you argue with them” (Roberts, 2018) • “I don’t think a family necessarily HAS to be made up of blood. I think family are the people who you see sticking by your side through everything and while that may mean our blood relatives to people like you and me, it doesn’t always to everyone else. Everyone’s families are so complex and I think that even though, yes we are born into the family, we are sometimes born into other family relationships that are built even stronger than the bond we have with our blood family. So I think that what “defines” a family is the bond you have with someone and the love and support that’s shown in that relationship whether it be blood relatives or friends/people who you just have that special connection with” (Ochoa, 2018). TWITTER POLL • As a way to get statistics of my own, I decided to make a twitter poll asking people on twitter what they think a family is defined as. I gave people the options to the left and allowed them to express their minds through their vote. (I made sure that the ”Don’t really care” option was put there because a lot of people don’t care because it does not have anything to do with them and accept any of the options.) TWITTER POLL ANALYSIS • I figured that the results would have ended like this due to an article that I read ahead of time. This article conducted a survey of 2,691 random adults and asked a similar question to mine. The author of the article found that 68% of these people accepted the many different family structures. Of these 68%, 37% of the people couldn’t care less because it makes no difference to them. • A significant fact that I recently learned while reading an article is that sometimes friends are capable of making you a lot more happier and healthier than your own family. This has actually been proven by studies done by Professor William Chopik. I also gained the knowledge that having close friends has a stronger impact on older people’s lives. Friendship is such a powerful relationship that friends TEAM/FRIENDS deserve to be defined as family even though they aren’t blood family. • Teams can also be defined as family. In fact a team that consider themselves family do much better than other teams. An article that I read stated a very great point, “watch an interview with any athlete or coach who has just won a major title and you will invariably hear the words “hard work,” “determination” and — nine times out of 10 — “family”(Leslie, 2016). TEAM/FRIENDS LGBTQ AND SINGLE PARENTS • Like I said in the beginning, I believe that any couple with their children can be considered a family. A big argument that has been going on amongst people is if two dads or moms and their adopted child would be considered a family. I recently read an article about how an adopted child feels being in a family. The author stated that it did not matter who adopted them, as long as they are loving people and willing to make them feel at home and feel as if they are apart of a family. I also believe that as long as a single parent is willing to love their kids unconditionally then they are considered a family as well. REFERENCES • Corletto, R (2018, March 18). Text message interview. • Luna, O. (2018, March 21). Text message interview. • Luna, V. (2018, March 21). Text message interview. • Ochoa, A. (2018, March 19). Text message interview. • Roberts, D. (2018, March 19). Text message interview. • Sahagun, M. (2018, March 18). Text message interview. • Leslie, Nathan. (2016, December 27). We Are F-A-M-I-L-Y - Values That Build Winning Teams. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://onemillionskates.com/we-are-f-a-m-i-l-y/ • Melcher, M What Adopted Means to a Child. (2015, July 10). Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://www.adoption.net/a/parenting/blogs-parenting/what-adopted-means-to-a-child/23699/ • Words, W. W. (1998, June 6). Family. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-fam1.htm