How far should we go?

I've been thinking alot recently about how far I would go to be liked.  I was pretty much an only child, so I grew up fairly independent - I've not been one of those people who routinely concerns myself with what others 'think' of my actions.  Do you sense the "but"?  Yes, but, lately, it seems, as I've gotten older, and I guess more set in my ways as they say, I've noticed that this attitude is biting me in the - well - you-know-what. It's not that I've suddenly begun to care if someone does or doesn't like me - I'm still of the opinion that either you do or you don't.  You simply can't please everyone all of the time.  It is more that I'm becoming weary of the attitude.  The attitude that it is acceptable to treat someone like your BFF one minute and then turn around and verbally bludgeon that same BFF to your OTHER BFF the very same day.  Am I just still so naive to believe that if you don't like me, fine, be polite, but don't be fake?  I guess it's just the human condition that I just don't want to know that I'm not alone in this small suffering and would really like to know if I'm the only one out there stepping in this moral feces.  I'm continually looking for ways to improve myself - perhaps this is something I need to work on? Should I just consider the inconvenience of two-facedness a normal part of life, like the fact that the ice cream will melt and it will get everywhere and it will dry and get all sticky and require cleaning up?  Or should I continue on the current path of identifying any symptoms of this weak human condition and do everything within my means to avoid relationships with these poor souls?