Question

[ánh tuyết nguyễn]

• You are going to read the article below. Five sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from line sentences      A - F the one which fits each gap (1 - 5).

                                                                                       SOCIAL MEDIA AND FRIENDSHIP

   Having too many friends does not sound like the kind of thing anyone should really be too concerned about. After all, what can be wrong with having a wider group of people to hang out with? According to the latest figures, the average number of friends people have with social media is somewhere between 200 and 300. (1) __________ But is this a realistic amount? Is it feasible to maintain meaningful relationships with so many people, in particular those you may never actually meet in person? 

   Nowadays, we are just one click away from making new friends on social media. (2) __________ For instance, when I see that a friend has updated their profile with snaps from their latest holiday, I'd typically reply with a comment like “Wow, looks great!” even though in actual fact, it doesn’t. The unwritten agreement is that the next time I post, that friend will respond with a similarly appreciative comment, so I’ll feel better about myself. 

   Not long ago, I got chatting to someone at a concert, who told me that she loved going to gigs. We got along pretty well that evening, even though the music was so loud! We even swapped numbers and added each other on social media. Now, I see her pop up in my feed now and again and I ‘like’ her photos from various gigs she’s been to, but I’m pretty certain that we’ll never arrange to meet up in real life. 

   (3) __________ That being said, we’re living in a time where we expect things to happen instantly, so is it really all that surprising that the way we form friendships has adapted to this trend? Perhaps it shows how social media has made friendships less sincere, reducing them to a series of meaningless ‘adds’ and ‘likes’. 

   Real friendships, on the other hand, take time to build. My most important relationships haven’t grown out of a few trivial online exchanges. (4) __________ And these for me - and I believe for most other people too - are much more valuable and meaningful. It’s something that cannot be replicated on social media, no matter how many times you have ‘liked’ a person’s posts. 

   It has been suggested that technology is ruining our relationships with other people. (5) __________ However, it seems undeniable that it has now altered people’s priorities, and transformed the way that we manage our friendships in the most fundamental ways. Ultimately, though, it’s up to us to decide how real and meaningful those friendships truly are.

+ SENTENCES:

A. Personally I wouldn't go so far as to say that.

B. Research suggests that this figure is actually higher for teenagers. 

C. Social media has made this kind of problem increasingly more common.

D. It's taken years of shared experiences to develop strong and lasting bonds.

E. This has led some people to question just how sincere the friendship is.

F. It could be argued that this is just another example of how life has changed in recent years.