Americans are becoming more lonely. So claims the study by the Duke University, North Carolina.

In 1985, when a similar study has been coducted, an average American had three very close friends. Now the number of people with whom to share your secrets is no more than two for an average person. Meanwhile, every fourth out of 1,500 people who participated in the study says they have no close friends at all.

People are relying more on family, the researchers found, with those who speak only to kin about important matters increasing from 57 percent to 80 percent, and those speaking solely to their spouses about such things growing from 5 percent in 1985 to 9 percent in 2004.

Longer work hours, lengthier commutes and the substitution of internet connections for live ones may have contributed to the breakdown of social networks, said Lynn Smith-Lovin, a sociology professor at Duke University and one of the authors of the study. "It could be that people reacted by closing in on a small number of people they have known for a long time," she said.

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