There is a portion of this world’s population that could care less about the World Wide Web. Even if they’re aware of it’s existence, it still has no direct bearing on their day-to-day lives. An Internet outage doesn’t affect their work. If Twitter/YouTube/Insert-your-favorite-app-here goes down for an hour they feel no anxiety and have zero frustration.

I recently spent 11 days traveling in Guatemala. The country is beautiful and the people are welcoming and generous.

One thought repeatedly occupied my mind over the course of the trip, especially when driving in rural areas that seemed so disconnected from the rest of the world: A significant portion of my energy, thinking, enjoyment, and passion is devoted to and derived from the Web. It’s what I do all day and sometimes too much of the evening. My lifestyle is absolutely dependent on it.

In contrast, many Guatemalans live a simple, agrarian life, some without electricity, running water, and other conveniences. Certainly their lives do not revolve around the online world of websites, PR, design, social networks, and all of the buzzwords that pay our bills.

I’m looking at the things I have and the things I do with a new perspective.