The purpose of this article is to explore how habits of using Information and Communications Technologies (hereafter ICT) and actual ICT skills relate to what has been called Digital Natives.The present study explores Digital Native-like people and other groups among two cohorts of students in their first year of university, contributing to the overall picture of Digital Natives as part of the young generation. The study combines survey data describing ICT and media use with test data describing performance-based ICT skills.

With the introduction of internet as a source of information, parents have observed youngsters' tendency to prefer internet as a source, and almost a reluctance to learn in advance since "you can look it up when needed". Questions arise, such as 'Are these phenomena symptoms of changing beliefs about knowledge and learning? Is it at all possible to learn on a deeper level simply by looking up the basic facts, without memorizing them?' Within an existing line of investigation, epistemic beliefs have been described as a set of dimensions. Although internet-based information and internet as a source of information have been acknowledged, studies so far have not explored how dealing with internet-based information relates to other epistemic beliefs dimensions. To capture how users view internet-based information per se but also in relation to other epistemic beliefs, I suggest three new dimensions, out of which the most crucial is labelled 'Internet reliance'. Offloading memory using memory aids is not a new phenomenon but the 'Internet reliance' dimension indicates that especially internetreliant users may be confusing external information with personal knowledge, with all the risks it may entail. Besides including beliefs about learning, this study also challenges earlier assumptions regarding uncorrelated dimensions.

Purpose The internet and search engines dominate within people’s information acquisition, especially among the younger generations. Given this trend, this study aims to explore if information and communication technology (ICT) practices, internet reliance and views of knowledge and knowing, i.e. epistemic beliefs, interact with each other. Everyday practices and conceptions among beginning undergraduate students are studied as a challenge for higher education. Design/methodology/approach The study builds upon survey-based quantitative data operationalising students’ epistemic beliefs, their internet reliance and their ICT practices. The survey items were used to compute subscales describing these traits, and the connections were explored using correlations analysis. Findings The results suggest that the more beginning undergraduate students rely on internet-based information, the more they are inclined to epistemic beliefs where knowledge is regarded as certain, unchanging, unambiguous and as being handed down by some authority. Research limitations/implications The approach used in the study applies to the sample used, and further research is required to test the applicability of the approach on larger samples. Practical implications The study highlights the risk of everyday information practices being transferred into the educational context. Social implications Ignorance of these changes may pose a risk for knowledge building on different educational levels and in a longer perspective, a threat to democracy. Originality/value While there is some research on epistemic beliefs in relation to internet-based information, studies approaching the problem over a possible connection between epistemic beliefs and internet reliance are scarce. In addition, this study implies a conceptual bridge between epistemic beliefs and internet reliance over the concept of algorithmic authority.