Have human needs changed?

It could also be argued that we have created our own problems, by exacerbating our basic needs. Food for example, is a basic need for survival, early man had to eat much more food than we do today due to the cold temperatures and being on the move all day. Today however, we do not have to hunt for our food and there is much more available to us, this, coupled with our fixation with technology and modern transport methods reducing our travel by foot, has resulted in record levels of obesity and heart attacks. In essence, it is our basic need for food that is one of our biggest killers, because we simply don’t know when to stop eating. An example of this was recently mentioned on BBC news, in which an expert demonstrated the average size of breakfast portions compared to what most people actually need for their daily activities. The feeling of hunger kicks in at the same level for most people, the same level has been used throughout our evolution, therefore, the feeling of hunger leads us to believe we need more food in order to survive, however, because we are now so inactive, working in offices and relaxing in front of the TV, this is not the case, and we can survive for days without food because we simply don’t burn off the calories we consume.
There is also the problem today that our food is highly processed in order to meet the demand of our huge population, this means the food we eat has exceptionally high levels of fat compared to the food that our ancestors would have eaten.
Food is not the only area that offers examples of exaggeration of our needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that we have self-esteem needs, that we need to feel a sense of achievement and be shown respect. Some people may choose to join the army or ...

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...ing this, we have maximised the time we have available to achieve our goals. I believe that the population as it is today, has collective needs, as well as individual needs because the population is no longer made up of small communities dotted around the globe, but rather we are one huge population that has led to the need for us to work together to ensure everyone’s needs are met, I therefore believe that human rights have become a need, not for individuals, but for the entire human race, this could be described in terms of Maslow’s transcendance needs as their aims are to ensure everyone’s needs are met to allow them to reach ‘self-actualisation’. I also believe that there is a mixture of both our needs determining our lifestyle, especially in early man, and our lifestyles today making our needs easier to fulfill and therefore, altering our perceptions of needs.