This Dilbert cartoon points to what happens when technology is used without purpose behind it. As an ABV collaborator wrote, in an email with the cartoon:
"In a humorous way, I think it speaks to problems on both sides of the equation. For those who use these emerging tools without purpose beyond the coolness of the tools themselves – i.e. no content – then the tools do indeed lack "upper body strength." On the other side of the equation – those who would just as soon forget about the emerging tools – they’re too eager to dismiss them because they seem lightweight. I think people who have been successful as digital immigrants fall into those categories…they simply don’t get the real power when used appropriately.
I remember seeing a clip from a very old TV series some time back that made fun of TV…calling it a "passing fad." It may have been the "Honeymooners" or some classic like that…a show that was smart enough to poke fun at itself as well as those who doubted the medium’s staying power. The same phenomenon holds here. When I mention to people that I use YouTube almost daily for research that’s powerful because it’s visual movement & sound…I get looks like I’m a time wasting slacker…hell, why not do some real research at the library!
So in many ways, there’s a failure of respect going both ways. The tools must respect the need for great content & not get caught up in the "flash" factor of the tools themselves; those unfamilar with the tools are making a terrible mistake by considering them content void (when they’re the ones with the wisdom to add the content!) & lightweight.
But here’s the payoff: ABV is about building the upper body strength of these new tools. It’s applying the proven techniques (branding/marketing/story/full expression) to the emerging tools to yield powerful content & produce the hybrid that’s better than either model left to itself. Smug users of the new tools who lack depth & content as well as respect for what’s come before are as out of sync as those who refuse to embrace "the way the world is going." ABV bridges expectations & reality."
I keep coming back to the power of hybrids. If I sound like a broken record, it’s because I am a hybrid. I live it everyday, as a boundary crosser, as a whole brain thinker, as an Asian American, as a former woman engineer turned coach. The model is not "either/or." Either a woman or an engineer. Either an Asian or an American. Either right-brain or left-brain. Either traditional or cutting edge. The model is "both/and."