Isolated Americans trying to connect (AP)

NEW YORK - In bleak nursing homes and vibrant college dorms, in crowded cities and spread-out suburbs, Americans confront an ailment with no single cause or cure. Some call it social isolation or disconnectedness. Often, it's just plain loneliness. An age-old ailment, to be sure, and yet by various measures — census figures on one-person households, a new study documenting Americans' shrinking circle of intimate friends — it is worsening. It seems ironic, even to those who are affected ...