I just messed around on Chessmaster with the bots and tutorials for a few months and was probably what would be about 400 rated on here. Read a beginner book then went to 900ish.
Sort of like fighting games and the difference between learning about frame data or not.
"Laskersnephew, you make it sound so easy. "
It's not easy, but it's not as hard as you think either. As with many skills, you need to work to build good habits. Once the habits are built, you begin doing the right thing almost automatically.
First you look at your opponent's move and see what, if anything, he's threatening. What if it was his move? Does he have any checks or captures that you need to defend against. Next you look over the position from an offensive point of view: Do I have any checks, captures or threats? If you do this on each move, it will seem like a big job at first, but with a little application it will become an almost subconscious process. And you will be amazed at the number of times you avoid dropping material and the number of times you grab the material your opponent leaves hanging
Short answer: Yes in your case.
Not necessarily above 700, but everyone needs to study at some point. Playing casually can only get a person so far. eventually you will hit a brick wall, and you have to try other options to get around it; such as studying. That brick wall could be any level person to person, for me it was 1500. Got stuck there for ages. I started studying recently and now im 1600.
Chess.com lessons are pretty cool, you could try them. Watch instructive videos as well and above all, find out the mistakes you're making in your own games, be aware of them, give your best to avoid making similar mistakes again.