"If true"?
OK, I've held off for a while, but...
If you know that your browser has a box into which you can enter an address, and use it regularly for that purpose, you're in tiny, tiny, tiny subset of all web users. Ditto for knowing what a "web browser" is (in the abstract sense, not in the sense of "the Internet button, that one that looks like a blue E".
If you know that there's such a thing as a "secure connection" to a web site (knowing the name "SSL" or not), again you're in a very small subset of users. If you also know which user-interface cues your browser presents to show you when you're using a secure connection, shrink that subset significantly further.
I could go on and on about this, but hopefully the point is clear: the way you use the web is not the way most people use the web. They're not "stupid" or "idiots" or "illiterate" because of this, they're just people who've never had to learn these things. And the disconnect between what various small subsets of the population do, and what everybody else does, is one of the most important things you can know about in this business; if you don't understand how the rest of the world surfs, you'll never be able to effectively reach them.
(and don't even get me started on how this informs successful business decisions made by companies which HN readers regularly vilify...)