Unidentified Woman: (Singing) If you don't want to love me, I'll find somebody else who will, find another kind of thrill, find another way to fill this loneliness.

NPR: Cowboy Troy and 'Hick-Hop'

This amazing and impassioned fantasia about American loneliness begins as satire and ends with a vision of the sublime.

NEWYORKER: American Beauty

But, far away from the wail of sirens, there is so much hurting and loneliness that surrounds us in this world, so much need and hunger and solitary despair.

CNN: In the new year, be a first responder

As predicted, this behavior eventually results in a life of loneliness and dread, probably forcing poor Chase to switch off the Nintendo handheld and seek out his long lost friends.

ENGADGET: The Game Boy musical teaches addict a lesson

"This required going back into the pain and the loneliness and the isolation and frustration of being a stutterer, " Seidler said.

CNN: Finding words for 'The King's Speech' took decades

Muhly handles this lurid story with thoughtfulness and compassion: plaintive chorales and brooding ostinatos suggest the sadness and the loneliness lurking within the electronic global village.

NEWYORKER: The Long Haul

If this bold social experiment produces lots of isolated people, there will of course be an outlet for their loneliness: they can confide in their robot pets and partners.

ECONOMIST: Why the Japanese want their robots to act more like humans