you can't help it if someone else decides to like you

But you can like somebody without being their friend.

I hope you can see their good points as well as their considerable shortcomings.

I do, definitely; I like having those sort of friendships as well as closer/deeper/whatever-er friendships. But at the moment I'm feeling like it's all very ... unreal, I guess; I feel like I'm exchanging words with people but it doesn't mean anything. It's not that I think people are being insincere; I just don't feel like the words connect properly. If that makes sense. Everything feels distant and deadened.