Digital Native to me means you grew up when 'digital' was both everywhere and all encompassing. You don't have to understand it any more than you have to understand how hot water comes out of your shower or why a light turns on when you flip a switch.

Those of us grew up in the 'before times' had to understand how computers worked just to make them, well work. Much like someone who had to dig their own well, run their own pipes and heat their own water probably has a much better understanding as to how and why hot water comes out of their shower.

I wonder how much of that belief is true, and even more specifically, how much of that translates to real-life skills. In my experience, people picked up "digital" skills casually over some years, are indistinguishable from people who "grew up" with half of their lives being lived digitally. And neither of these understand how computers work, at most, what they are familiar with are the happy path of how they achieve some goals using the computer / smartphone, and maybe basic troubleshooting.

Part of why I don't think people understand the digital world is because it's changing fast. Both the systems themselves on a lower levels like hardware, and on top in regards to UX. Typing into a Commodore 64 is vastly different than a mouse-driven traditional desktop, which again is very different than a material design smartphone app. It's a lot of work to know these systems, and so, I think people don't know them that well, and that they overestimate their, and others' familiarity with them, in a similar way to how the Dunning-Kruger effect works.

Well we have had over 40 years of practice...