Whatever circumstances you’re born into you assume as being normal, because “that’s the way things are”. When all you know is war, fighting and being on the run determines your image of life and reality. Most of us, who have never personally experienced war or other life threatening crises, assume a life of safety and comfort as being normal, and whatever “soft” revolution that we experience, like having Internet connection in every household, having a mobile phone and so forth, are conceived as normal by the next generation. Just because stuff like this exists.
And usually “normal” stuff , no matter if it’s war or a computer, is not questioned by the new generation of participants or users. Today’s kids just use Google, YouTube and Facebook like it’s always been around and a somewhat integral part of life, but they don’t really know how it works (technically) or what its purpose is (advertising, not searching). In that sense, the new generation should not be called Digital Natives but Digital Naives.
What’s a little funny about this whole thing is that it’s the first of the four stages of competence, but one can only advance through all four when he knows that he’s incompetent int he first place. And often this doesn’t happen because of the unawareness of incompetence, because the perceived ability to use a device, service or whatever makes one forget they don’t actually know how it’s done. This paradox is known in the professional world as the starting point of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and when we take this as a given, big opportunities we haven’t seen before become pretty obvious.
(Yes, it’s a cliffhanger.)