Everyone wants to be connected

We all want to be connected with someone/something. I think it's the curse of consciousness.  Being conscious means that you understand that you are mortal, understand that you are a separate entity from everything else.  I believe this makes us lonely.  Not to mention that we are compelled societally and biologically to search out a mate, and the fact that humans have extended childcare means that we must feel trust and care from our parents/family/clan.

But in the end we are all alone.  We have people we love, people who love us, but they can never know exactly how I feel, and I can never know what it's like to be them.  All we have is language which is a poor proxy for emotion and, quite frankly, reality.  So we keep on trying.  Searching for the relationships and moments that make us feel loved, understood, listened to.  

I've been keeping a look out lately to see what sorts of methods people use to reach out or feel connected with other people.  Some people use guilt, some use sex, some use subcultures, some use substances like pot or alcohol (well, maybe that one is for dulling the ache of loneliness, boredom, ennui, alienation, etc).

Thoughts?