I have a character in my story for whom being computer savvy is supposed to be a major personality trait. The character works with computers for a living (even if their side job they do as part of the plot is almost purely physical) and considers being a white-hat hacker as one of their hobbies. However, I have noticed this trait almost never seems to impact the story and as a result negatively impacts their characterization.
Given this, I have been trying to figure out how to write a character that is skilled at programming or a hacker and show how they would approach the world. Overall, I am trying to go for a more realistic depiction of a computer-savvy hacker, rather than the unrealistic "hack all the Internets by typing really fast and uploading viruses of laughing skulls to Area 51".
One would think that being familiar with computers and programming would affect the way a person/character sees the world, specifically how they approach problems, the personal skills they learn, and the points of reference they have (and the references they make), just like how being skilled in any given field makes people contextualize the world in terms of knowledge in that field. I've noticed something similar in how I see the world with my professional expertise versus how other people do with theirs. Being a fan of xkcd and familiar with that site's style of humor, it has become very apparent to me that being computer literate does affect one's worldview (xkcd comes across as funny, but very alien to me). However, I have been unable to find any good advice on how to depict a computer literate character on the Internet. Again, xkcd is about the closest I have come in terms of understanding the mindset. Compared to a lot of other subcultures, there don't seem to be a lot of guides to get into a computer literate mindset.
It's not even clear what a reader would accept as constituting being "computer literate". From my experience the way people define "computer literate" can be anything from "can use Powerpoint" to "can give you a detailed rundown as to the differences between Python and Ubuntu". As an example of how varied definitions can be: a lot of people in my life have described me as computer literate because I know how to use Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, but I wouldn't because I don't even know how to write a line of code! On top of that, it's not clear how to describe someone as computer literate without running the risk of horribly dating the character. One might depict a character as being savvy with a specific programming language or operating system that within five years of publication is completely dead.
Given these problems, how would one go about portraying that a character is computer savvy or a hacker?