Your friendship map
Most people have never looked at their friendships all at once. Today you draw the map: who is close, who is further out, and who is only there out of habit.
Circles, not a list
Friendships sit in rings. A small inner circle of people you would call at 3am. A wider ring of good friends. Then a larger crowd of people you like but do not really confide in.
Trouble usually starts when someone sits in an inner ring out of history or habit, while the way they treat you belongs much further out. Mapping it makes that visible.
The anthropologist Robin Dunbar found that human social networks tend to form layers of roughly 5 intimate friends, 15 close friends and 50 good friends, each layer requiring more time and trust than the one outside it. You have limited room in the inner rings, which is why who sits there matters.
Who is in your inner circle right now, the people you would tell something hard? List them, initials are fine.
Who is close to you mainly because of history, habit or a group you're both in, rather than because of how they treat you now?
Quick check
You have known a friend for fifteen years. Lately, after seeing them, you usually feel worse about yourself. What does the length of the friendship tell you?
Take this with you
History is a reason for patience. It is not a reason to stay in the inner circle.