It isn't easy to see the difference between those people though. And even if it is, it still extremely hard to even start to get rid of them. Sometimes you even think you deserve them and all the shit they put you through. And just to be clear, you don't.
When I was a kid, I was bullied a lot. Everybody hated me when I moved to the town where I live now, and since I didn't have friends I bought them. I tried my very best to buy the acceptance of the same people that made my childhood a living hell. I tried to get them to like me even though I knew that the next day they'd make me cry my eyes out once again. All this so I could feel like I wasn't so badly hated and an outsider even for one tiny second. But all it did was me ending up using my (parents') money for absolutely nothing since they still bullied me the next day and the day after that.
Why I am telling you this is because I want you to understand that I am a great example of a human being that clearly doesn't want to be alone. I need other's acceptance to be able to live with myself. Just like any other person, especially a kid/teenager in this society of ours. To get that acceptance, we often don't care about the quality of those 'friends' we try to gain. We just care about the fact that it looks good in the eyes of strangers. We just care about the fact that we aren't completely alone.
But what we usually don't realize is that we are alone in a situation like that. A human being can be alone even in a room full of people. Even in a room filled with those fake friends.
Those fake friends do appear in way more ways than just the school bullies I had when I was a kid. Fake friends are everywhere. They are the people that only care about themselves. They are the people that have never in a three-year friendship asked you how you are doing and truly cared about the answer. They are the people that don't listen when you tell them something. They are the people that put others above you every chance they get. They are the people that make you feel bad about the person you are. They are the people that never check in on how you are doing. They are the people that you know wouldn't visit you if you ever were in a car accident and would end up in hospital.
They are the people that you most certainly don't need to surround yourself with.
When you recognize the bad people in your life, you can start letting them go for your own good and personal growth, but even more importantly you can finally see and appreciate the people in your life that truly love and cherish you for the person that you are.