American Psychologist, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, was a theory proposed in his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation. It essentially described the stages of humans go through for psychological motivation and development. These stages are most often depicted in the shape of a pyramid, with largest, most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom – Psychological (air, shelter, food and water), moving upwards to safety, love, belonging, self-esteem and finally, on top tier, self-actualisation (creativity, problem-solving, morality and spontaneity).
However, a meme of AH Maslow’s hierarchical pyramid appeared on social media, with a new basic human need added below the physiological base tier: Wi-Fi access. Shortly after that, somebody added yet another base tier to the pyramid: Battery-charging. Many will agree that these two new tiers should be part of the physiological tier, because if we look at the original paper it states that “The needs that are usually taken as the starting point for motivation theory are the so called physiological drives. Two recent lines of research make it necessary to revise our customary notions about these needs, first, the development of the concept of homeostasis, and second, the finding that appetites (preferential choices among foods) are a fairly efficient indication of actual needs or lacks in the body”. Homeostasis is however, defined as the metabolic equilibrium actively maintained several complex biological mechanisms that operate via the autonomic nervous system to offset disrupting changes; it can be viewed as a form of adaptation.
With this, it is important to note that the original paper also has this to say, “Thus it seems impossible as well as useless to make any list of fundamental physiological needs for they can come to almost any number one might wish, depending on the degree of specificity of description”. Away from all the jargons, we must not forget that this information is biased on memes from social media, apparently many new trends have risen from social media, I guess new theories can arise too.
Some years ago, the seemingly unthinkable happened, when all cell phone companies agreed to make all their charging ports universal, ensuring that no matter what make of phone one uses, if one gets stranded one would be able to easily borrow a charger when one battery runs down. Although this has not being actualised one hundred percent (because of the exception of some companies to the agreement) most people will agree that this agreement holds a real benefit we have all enjoyed.
While tongue-in-cheek, these memes illustrated that our priorities are now shifting towards a broadband-dependent era. And love them or hate them, this always-on, ever-connected lifestyle we are drifting towards are big businesses. Culling from our local environment, it will be worthy of note to have in mind that it is not only telephone and network companies that profit from our new life style. The list is endless, from programmers who make software and develop the applications to the various classes and levels of traders who sell devices and gadgets, the websites and social media are also on the list, financial organisations and virtually all forms of business are also gaining from it one way or the other. Many will agree that we are quickly moving towards a technology dependent society. More recently we are seeing the next level of technological evolution of the basic digital need in the wireless charging. This is a technology whereby a magnetic field in the charger transfers power to a receiver imbedded with the Qi enabled device. (Qi is an open interface standard developed by the Wireless Power Consortium for inductive charging over distances of up to 4 cm). It is completely wireless, all you need to do is place your device on the charging surface. As of mid-last year there are over 140 models of devices that are Qi enabled including smartphones, tablets, smart wrist watches, and other handheld devices.
The technology might not be considered new as it has been around for quite some time. As far back as 2008, the Wireless Power Consortium first published the Qi and the technology has been in use since 2009. With steady development of the Qi the wireless charging technology is fast growing and is estimated to reach its commercial tipping point very soon. The Wireless Power Consortium is an organisation aiming for one global standard (called Qi), making all wireless-chargers compatible with all battery operated devices. With this goal of the Wireless Power Consortium, there is hope for the universality of wireless-charging based on the fact that when innovation-based solutions meet with consumers’ demands, manufacturing brands have very little choice of production if they want to keep heads above water. As a result there are already over 40 million various Qi enabled products from most of the major manufactures.
The Qi wireless technology is also supported by Consumer Electronics for Automotive, an organisation standardising mobile device interface in cars, this means the standard will be maintained in cars, after all if consumers are already comparing Wi-Fi and battery life with basic human needs, it is not difficult to see the connection between providing this services and brand loyalty.
Hezron Atunde
