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As an executive at a firm that provides IT consulting services to companies around the globe, I often think about the challenges the next generation of IT workers will face. This field is hugely complex and getting more so by the year.
And today''s IT job market is global. Future workers will compete with skilled people on several continents, not just at home. Who could possibly overcome such obstacles?
Thoughts like these were running through my head as I was at home the other night. Then I happened to glance up at my 15-year-old daughter Brianna, who was working on the computer across the room. Brianna was preparing homework with Microsoft Word, reading and answering e-mail, using Instant Messenger to carry on separate discussions with several groups of friends, listening to her iPod, and surfing the Web for input on her homework.
My head began to ache just thinking about the mental effort. But Brianna didn''t seem to mind. She was working well with these communication channels and typing away to the beat of her iPod as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Then it hit me: This thoroughly normal teenager was multiplexing her activity — maintaining a precise balance and constantly evaluating her open tasks, she applied just the right amount of attention to each, slicing time like a hub and doing it all on a demand basis.
This was particularly startling because, although I consider myself an "IT expert," I would have trouble keeping more than three e-mails open at one time, let alone balancing all the chores my daughter was involved in.
But there was nothing magic in her performance. All over town there were thousands of other kids doing the same thing. They are a generation that grew up with planned sports, academics, religious instruction, and social activities. They did algebra in the backseat of SUVs as they were shuttled between appointments. They learned to use technological tools that were barely dreamed of 30 years ago. And somewhere along the way, they perfected the art of carrying on multiple activities at once.
In a phrase, they are the multiplexed generation, or Generation MUX.
They are also perfect candidates for the next generation of IT workers. In the information age, information flow is virtual and digitized. The members of Generation MUX have adapted to that digital flow. They multitask better than their predecessors did. And as our field grows more complex, the Generation MUXers are perfectly equipped to cope — managing IT systems, communicating with colleagues, and absorbing critical new information all at the same time. They''ll sustain a pace that would drive older, serial-minded IT folk like me crazy.
单选题
According to the author, what kind of challenge the future IT workers will confront?