A good answer might be:

Yes ― the position of a bit matters.

How Many Patterns with Three Bits?

How many patterns can be formed with three bits? Let's list them: 

      0 0 0
      0 0 1
      0 1 0
      0 1 1
      1 0 0
      1 0 1
      1 1 0
      1 1 1


Looks like 8 patterns.

QUESTION 3:

Is the number of patterns that can be formed with N bits greater than the number of bits?