Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.

It is said that most people have no more than 30 friends at any given time, and 400 over the whole of their lives. (26) __________, on social networking sites, most users have about 150 friends. If these numbers are correct then friendship means different things in different (27) __________.

One of the reasons for having more online friends than real friends at a certain point in time is that online friendships do not require (28) ________ time and energy: it is easy to accept friendships and keep them forever. Another (29) _________ is that it is difficult to say 'no' when somebody asks us to be their friend online, even if we feel we don't really know them. The fact that they ask us suggests that they do consider us a friend, (30) _________ is a nice feeling. Alternatively, they may be 'collectors' of online friends and just want to use us to get a higher number of friends and appear to be popular.