In the wake of my Draft #2 I’ve been continuing to “surf” EBSCO and other search engines designed to help students research. I realize that my topic being about both father figures and Asian-Americans is a tall order for any research database, but I must admit that I’m surprised at just how hard it is to find applicable research on this topic.  Perhaps it is telling of how unnoticed APIA peoples feel in our Western society.

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More arguments continue to erupt on my Facebook feed, over politics, sexuality, race, religion, etc. In the past I have always written these unofficial debates off as nonsense and moved on without so much as a second thought, but with the increasing frequency of these arguments, the state of our country’s political climate and the perspective of this class under my belt, it’s becoming hard to not take notice. The outstanding themes that I see in all of these debates, no matter the subject, are that they are always about social issues and neither side seems to make any headway with the other because neither side is after the truth, but rather the victory which will never come (because it’s a Facebook argument).

I don’t think that I necessarily have any better perspective on the subject, which is why I never argue on the internet and intend to keep it that way, but I do know that I have never seen progress come of these debates. In taking this class and others in the past like it, I think that my biggest take-away has been that all people are pretty similar: we all want love and affection, security, peace, etc. we just all express those things in different ways and that often causes trouble.

Part of the problem of a social media debate is that it is very public and therefore it is impossible for egos to not play an overwhelmingly huge role in the disagreement. I often wonder how different these arguments would turn out if a discrepancy arose and one party invited the other out to coffee in order to find common ground privately and in good faith. I realize that this is wishful thinking and wildly out of character for our culture that gorges itself upon dramatic entertainment but perhaps one day it will catch on.

Social problems will always affect our lives because we are social creatures, I just genuinely pray that I can be a person who helps to bring progress and healing rather than division.