11 Reasons Why Your Friends Group Starts Shrinking As You Get Older

During our teenage years, it was all about having the biggest and coolest circle of friends. Nights out had to involve at least ten of you and if the number was any less, the outing was called off due to a "lack of people". However, you may have noticed that as time went by, the number of close friends you had slowly started to decrease until you were left with about four solid friends. The rest, well, God knows where they ended up. Here are a few of the reasons why your group of friends has shrunk in size over the years:

1) You're in different colleges.

One of the main reasons friends lose contact is because they don't see each other all day every day like they used to in school. Maintaining friendships in college is a lot more difficult, especially when they're at opposite ends of the country. Even if you guys are in the same college you probably have a completely separate groups of friends and you can never find time to meet one another.

2) You all have part-time jobs.

Even when you come home for the weekends, you're so caught up in work that you don't even think about socialising. After a long day scrubbing tables, all you want to do is lounge around the house and eat. Anything that involves showering and getting changed is a definite no-go.

3) Some of you are in relationships.

Ah, the relationship curse. I guarantee you've had at least one friend in your lifetime who has found herself a significant other and immediately fucked off on her jolly way. Well, at least you won't have to deal with her shit when they break up and she spends months cleaning up her mess of a life. Karma, bitch.

4) You've become very lazy indeed.

Unless it involves sitting on a couch eating Doritos and Ben & Jerrys, you don't want to hear about it. You just can't be bothered to make the effort to meet friends that aren't comfortable being in your ugly presence. You know that real friends would be more than happy sitting around in a tracksuit watching re-runs of the Kardashians anyway.

5) You rarely communicate unless it's in person.

The epitome of laziness is not even responding to their texts when you have no actual excuse at all. You're not busy, you're not with other people, you're not at work; you just have zero fucking interest in replying to "Hey how's life? :)". Understandably, considering it's the first message you've gotten from them in five months and all they really want is a snappy summary and any juicy gossip you might have.

6) They've stopped liking your profile pictures.

You know you've lost a friend when they stop liking your pro-fos. Even if you look like a hooker dressed up as a slut for Halloween, your friends will always be on hand to give you a few sympathetic likes. If they can't even muster up the click of a button, they're definitely not part of your friend group anymore.

7) Nights out on the piss aren't what they used to be.

The friends you used to love going out with and acting the fool around just aren't the friends you want to spend nights out with anymore. In the past, getting slashed and going on the pull was all that was important on a night out, but these days you're happy to just have a few casuals and hit the dancefloor. Walking up to the drive-thru in McDonalds and pretending to roll down an imaginary window so they'll serve you just doesn't have the same appeal as it used to.

8) You've matured faster than they have.

As mentioned above, doing the stupid shit you used to just isn't something that tickles your fancy anymore. Your immaturity was all you had in common with that friend and now that you've grown up a lot and they're still in their teenage bubble, you have nothing to say to each other anymore.

9) Distance.

Maybe your friend has moved abroad for work placement or is spending the summer in America on a J1. Either way, they're too busy living the high life to bother Skyping and quite frankly, you couldn't care less. Not having them around for the summer hasn't dampened things at all and if you're being completely honest, you haven't even noticed they were gone in the first place.

10) They're jealous of all of your achievements.

You tell them good news about work or a new relationship and all they can hear is "I'm doing better than you, la la la la la". Jealousy between friends is never healthy and can lead to a build-up of serious resentment. If that friend can't even fake a smile for you, they're not really a friend at all.

11) They were toxic motherfuckers and you've only just realised it.

How did you not see this before? They've been poisoning your mind all along with lies and rants and just generally shittyness that you don't need. Get out now while you have the chance...