2020 Was the Year of Lost Friendships Reflecting on relationships that fizzled, fractured and broke during the pandemic. By Laura Neilson Getty Images I was always skeptical of the adage, “You can probably count your true friends on one hand.” That blunt sum felt impossibly restrictive to someone who prides herself on having formed and maintained many meaningful friendships. And then in 2020, my world became drastically smaller. Everyone’s did in various unexpected ways. Last year wasn’t only a period of self-isolating, social distancing, and seeing less of our loved ones; it also culminated in a number of ended friendships. However they played out—in the form of intentional breakups, passive dissolutions, or conscious “unfriendings”—last year’s stressors were an almost undeniable factor in these demises.