“The Lonely American Just Got a Bit Lonelier,” in today's New York Times, signals yet another alarm about increasing anomie in American society, despite a plethora of “communication media”:

A recent study by sociologists at Duke and the University of Arizona found that, on average, most adults only have two people they can talk to about the most important subjects in their lives — serious health problems, for example, or issues like who will care for their children should they die. And about one-quarter have no close confidants at all“....

Like ”Bowling Alone,“ the essay and, later, book by Robert D. Putnam, a public policy professor a Harvard, the Duke study suggested that a weakening of community connections is in part responsible for increasing social isolation. More people are working and commuting longer hours and have little time for the kinds of external social activities that could lead to deeper relationships....

The Internet is also cause for some optimism, because it has made it easier to maintain ties among family members who have become scattered. Those ties inevitably developed over long-term, face-to-face contact, but email can help keep them strong....

Still, [study coauthor] Dr. [Lynn] Smith-Lovin said, any optimism must be tempered. For one thing, having only one confidant, even if that confidant is a spouse, leaves a person extremely vulnerable if the spouse dies or the marriage disintegrates.

And in the end, she and others pointed out, e-mail or instant messaging is no substitute for face-to-face contact. ”Emailing somebody far way is not the same as them going to pick up your child at daycare or bringing you chicken soup,“ she said....

NPR interviewed study coauthor Dr. Smith-Lovin on June 24 (stream available online).