This is such an interesting topic that I believe needs attention. I think loneliness or lack of connection often gets turned into expectation. We often have fewer people in our lives (the basic spouse, children, a close friend or two, if that) and we put the expectation on these few people to fulfill all the needs of connection we long for.
And because one person cannot always provide connection on so many different levels, we end up disappointed and still feeling lonely.
We want different types of connection in different areas of life which requires more people. I think if we were to do an "inventory" we would find that there are some areas of life we feel connected and others, we are much more lonely.
Following you :)
Thank you for the thoughtful comment, @tressareid. : )
I agree with you, we are all very different and thus more suitable for fulfilling some types of social needs (some people have great sense of humor, some people are very smart, some are very gentle) and less suitable for other (for example, someone can be very gentle but not very communicative, or vice versa).
Thus, we can not expect one person to completely fulfill all of our needs since no one is perfect. :)