Countless songs have been written about heartbreak; we recall the disintegration of our romantic entanglements as pivotal moments in our lives; being “dumped” by a boyfriend or girlfriend is understood as a kind of trauma that requires “healing” and a “mourning period”. But what of the friendship break up?
It’s only recently that we’ve begun to have public conversations about the difficulties of losing a friend, and those conversations aren’t even very good ones. A new web series, Ex-Best, explores the issue in a jokey way, exaggerating awkward situations among ex-friends who still work together or are – gasp – invited to the same dinner party, and a couple self-helpy articles will come out every year, offering advice on “How to Break Up with a Toxic Friend,” but the actual impact of ending a friendship remains mostly unacknowledged.
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