Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow. Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly becoming societal problems, as they contribute to polarisation and affect our physical health. Mental health professionals, community advocates and health-care providers have been raising the alarm about this impending crisis.

The pandemic may have exacerbated social isolation and the subsequent feelings of loneliness, but it did not invent it. In 2018, two years before the pandemic, the United Kingdom created a ministerial portfolio for loneliness. Japan, where nearly 40 percent of the population report experiencing loneliness, began a similar position in 2021.

In studying the history of loneliness, Ananya Chakravarti, associate professor of history at Georgetown University in Washington in the U.S., has found as opposed to the loneliness of choosing solitude for religious or creative purposes, today’s loneliness is a product of our modern lives.