London: Wi-Fi has been identified as the most important daily need with 4 out of 10 persons giving it more importance than other human luxuries and necessities like sex, chocolate and alcohol, a new study has claimed.
The study, carried about by Wi-Fi connectivity provider iPass, surveyed 1,700 working professionals across Europe and the US about their connectivity habits. It involved asking participants to rank the importance of Wi-Fi against other “human luxuries and necessities” on a scale of 1-4, with one being most important and 4 bring least important.
Wi-Fi was labelled most important by 40.2 per cent of respondents, followed by sex (36.6 per cent), chocolate (14.3 per cent) and alcohol, which was ranked as the number one daily essential by 8.9 per cent of respondents, International Business Times reported.
“Wi-Fi is not only the most popular method of internet connectivity, it has surpassed many other human luxuries and necessities,” said Pat Hume, Chief Commercial Officer at iPass.
“The idea that Wi-Fi would be considered more important than sex, alcohol and chocolate would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. For some time now, the internet has appeared on the bottom line of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, almost as a longstanding joke in geek culture. Recently, the idea has gone mainstream.”
The reason behind Wi-Fi’s growing favour, it seems, is the impact it has had on our daily lives. Apparently, unlike sex, sweets and booze, the proliferation of internet connectivity seems to have had a largely positive effect, with three-quarters of respondents saying Wi-Fi had improved their quality of life, it said.
According to the study, a majority of people now also make travel decisions based on whether the hotel or accommodation has a Wi-Fi connection.
PTI