It is a source of "national shame" that as many as 800,000 people in England are "chronically lonely", Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.
In a speech, Mr Hunt highlighted the "problem of loneliness that in our busy lives we have utterly failed to confront as a society".
"Some five million people say television is their main form of company," he said.
Labour accused of him trying to blame families for government failures.
In a speech at the National Children and Adults Services (NCAS) conference, Mr Hunt said: "Each and every lonely person has someone who could visit them and offer companionship.
"A forgotten million who live amongst us - ignored to our national shame."
'Reverence and respect'He added: "According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, there are 800,000 people in England who are chronically lonely."
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He also told delegates that the 112,000 cases of alleged abuse in care homes referred by English councils in 2012-13, the majority involving over-65s, indicated that "something is badly wrong".
But the regulation of care in both the private and public sector was improving, he argued.
The Conservative MP said the new chief inspector of social care, Andrea Sutcliffe, would start to give ratings to care homes from April 2014, with a view to organising inspections of all 25,000 care homes by 2016.
Mr Hunt said he believed the UK should learn from Asian cultures, where there was "reverence and respect for older people" and "residential care is a last rather than a first option".
"The social contract is stronger because as children see how their own grandparents are looked after, they develop higher expectations of how they too will be treated when they get old," he explained.
"If we are to tackle the challenge of an ageing society, we must learn from this - and restore and reinvigorate the social contract between generations.
"And uncomfortable though it is to say it, it will only start with changes in the way we personally treat our own parents and grandparents."
England should aim to become "the best place in the world to grow old in", he concluded.
'Unaware'But Labour said the "real national shame" was "Jeremy Hunt's attempt to shift the blame for dealing with the very real problems of loneliness amongst elderly people on to families alone".
Living alone can be linked to habits that are bad for health.
Eating poorly and having less motivation to be physically active can be a consequence of being physically isolated.
Being alone can also affect mental health, causing people to feel low and depressed.
However, feeling lonely can in itself be bad for your physical health.
Studies have shown people who are socially isolated can cause damage to the immune system leading to a condition called chronic inflammation.
And other research suggested women who developed breast cancer were more likely to die of the disease if they saw few friends and family.
Shadow health and social care minister Liz Kendall said: "He seems completely unaware that there are over six million unpaid family carers in Britain today, one in five of whom provide more than 50 hours care a week for their loved ones.
"These unsung heroes save the taxpayer billions of pounds yet often get precious little support in return.
"Families, friends and neighbours need a decent care system to back up their efforts to look after elderly people, but the reality is our care system is in crisis and has been pushed to the brink of collapse.
"Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron need to take responsibly for their government's actions rather than trying to turn the clock back and say it's down to families alone."
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said on Twitter that Jeremy Hunt was "right to highlight isolation of older people".
He added: "But he can't get away from fact that Govt cuts to care have made it much worse."
But speaking on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Anthea Tinker, professor of social gerontology at King's College in London, said it was a "myth" that eastern Asian families placed greater reverence on families and older people than in the West.
"The reality is that with one-child-families, children have often moved to a city or emigrated," she said.
"So it's just not practical for families to depend on their children. One of the largest nursing homes in the world is about to open in China, for 5,000 people, which is amazing."
Prof Tinker added: "We've got to look at the reality rather than the myth."
Here is a selection of your experiences:
Jenny McCabe,Telford, Shropshire: I volunteer visiting the elderly in their homes which is very rewarding for both the person being visited and for myself. Many families today lead very busy lives and I'm sure try very hard to do it all including family commitments. But we have to accept that there are families who have no relatives and this is very hard for them when they reach their mature lives and have no family support. Social mobility plays a huge part as well, as families move away to work and reside and this leaves elderly parents sometimes feeling very alone.
Richard Bates, Chichester: After my mother died, my father carried on living in the family home until he fell in the snow. Only then did I realise how courageous he was, and stoic, but moreover how lonely. I have been his carer for four years since his fall, taking him out, keeping him mobile, and catching him when he fell again recently. I live in his home, have lost my earnings and receive a carer's allowance but it doesn't even cover the rent in my own home. I keep my dad company and am his only friend. Many other people around the country serve as unpaid carers and would endorse Mr Hunt's ideals, but wish he would give us better financial support.
Sally Generalovic, Abergavenny: It is about time this issue was addressed. My elderly father spent his last days living with us, it made us realise the importance of elderly care from the respect it gave my teenage children to the importance of finding an hour in our busy schedule to sit and talk. I believe we need re-educating on the importance of giving time to our elderly and agree that a care home should be the last option - we probably all have an elderly lonely person living in our area who would gain great comfort from a regular chat.
Glen Brooks, Diss, Norfolk: My mother has just passed away after living with my wife and I for 30 years after my father died. I agree the big things we could do for her was to provide a secure place to live and give her the confidence and companionship she would not have had had she been alone. However during those 30 years I would suggest successive governments have done very little to encourage siblings to adopt their parents in the way we did, there is no recognition/help given by the state of the effort made by people who take in their parents, or adapt their lives to ensure our elderly are safe.
Pamela, Doncaster: I don't necessarily believe that age has anything to do with this issue. I am a lady of almost 62-years-of-age who works full-time and is very busy in that time but when I do get home I walk in and lock the door and five out of seven days have no contact until the next workday. I do however feel that I could motivate myself to do other things, but on checking the local things to do this seems to be limited. I drive so do like to go for a drive - it must be awful for people of any age not to have any stimulating conversation on a daily basis - I feel this is where self-neglect can step in.
Dave Howes, Rochester, Kent: I am only 67 I have a nice home and all the trappings. I have neighbours who don't talk and I have no family at all. No one visits no one rings. The only time I see someone is when I shop. This will be the seventh Christmas on my own and my birthday is Christmas Eve. If I got ill I do not know what would happen. You don't have to be really old to be lonely. People who are surrounded by family have no idea. They should try it. I've had nearly eight years of it.
Peter Ryall, Bristol: I am 67-year-old single man, I live on my own with no family or children. No visitors from one week to the next. My television and computer are my only company but I did not realise how many people are in the same position as me! The thing I dread most is dying in my flat and not being discovered for months or even years. I don't talk to my neighbours as they don't seem to want to know me, so I keep myself to myself. I do get depressed but I try to keep my chin up most of the time.
Graham Dey, Glasgow: I had an uncle who passed away a couple of years ago. He lived to the age of 105 and right up to the day he passed on he was still the same character I had always known. There was no unhappiness in his conversations. I put this down to regular conversations as our house always had some dramas unfolding. The issue of growing old is very important, as is the caring for the elderly. Don't ignore them, we always involved old John in our conversations of current affairs, politics and some tech advances truly amazed him.
Mrs Johnson, West Sussex: I am 71, middle class and have four children and six grandchildren. They phone, but because of my children going to university then getting a job far from where I live, I never have any family popping in. They care and they phone, but I still often feel very lonely because I do not live near them.
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