I think when someone says systems, they mean computer systems. So the kind of things you're interested in are ultimately computer words like drivers, memory, threads, interrupts, queues. If that's your general level of abstraction you're system programming.
Higher level languages are something like an e-commerce website. You're talking about views, orders, auth, accounting, etc. Of course they connect at some level but you're generally thinking about some business level that isn't in terms of computer words.
Higher level languages are something like an e-commerce website. You're talking about views, orders, auth, accounting, etc. Of course they connect at some level but you're generally thinking about some business level that isn't in terms of computer words.