At my workplace there aren’t enough     11    (opportunity) to be different. We give care to others but sometimes we forget to care for     12    (we) and each other.

So, I print     13    (inspire) messages, happy pictures, etc, and post them on a blank space     14     I’ve found in one of our rooms. I believe they add to our “emotional education”.

One person asked me, “Why do you try to help these people? They are not very nice?” My answer     15    (be), “If it affects one person then it’s a good thing.” It doesn’t matter whether it has an impact     16     anyone else. What matters is that I’m the     17    (good) person I can be.

I know those     18    (print) stories and articles are read because they keep getting moved about. So,     19    (eventual), like sandpaper against a rough surface,     20     surface will become smooth and the messages will get through. How long it takes really doesn’t matter.

Having hundreds of friends online is no substitute for a handful of close friends in real life. Researchers discovered that people with only a few friends were at least as happy as those with far more if many of theirs were online. The number of ''peripheral others'', someone connected with online — former classmates and coworkers, for example — had no connection with how satisfied they felt.

Scientists did their study using data from two online surveys conducted on 1,496 people by a non-profit research organization. People taking part in the study revealed their ages, the make-up of their social networks, how often they had different types of social interactions, and their own feelings of well-being. They included details of how often and how they interacted with family or neighbours, and whether they included people who provided services for them in their networks. The number of close friends someone had was the only thing that influenced how satisfied they were with their social life.

''Loneliness has less to do with the number of friends you have, and more to do with how you feel about your friends,'' said Dr Bruine, an expert of the study. ''If you feel lonely, it may be more helpful to make a positive connection with a friend than to try and seek out new people to meet.''

In the study, they found older people tended to have smaller social networks. Younger people's were larger but this was mostly made up of ''peripheral others'' — not true friends, just people they knew — and did not contribute to their happiness.

Even variations in the number of family members or neighbours somebody spent time with did not affect how happy they were with their social life. Dr Bruine said her research echoed other findings showing people would be happier if a larger proportion of their online friends were actually their friends in reality.

She added, ''Stereotypes of aging tend to paint older adults in many cultures as sad and lonely. But the research shows that older adults' smaller networks didn't weaken social satisfaction and well-being. In fact, older adults tend to report better well-being than younger adults.''