Consider a person who has visited a certain city several times and who has learned a single route from the airport to some final destination. This visitor's understanding of the local geography is limited and fragile, whereas residents have a fuller understanding of arterial streets and landmarks. When a traffic jam occurs, the visitor doubtless chooses to wait it out, while the resident is more able to find an alternate route. Though the resident may not necessarily be familiar with the local streets of the exit, knowing the landmarks and general organization of the arterials will allow a rapid recovery. In the same way, a computer-literate individual knowing only basic information technology skills--word processing, e-mail, simple Web browsing--may appear not to need a deep or robust understanding of information technology, but when faced with an unexpected event or a problem, may well be less able to adapt or to find a work-around.

