College graduates entering the workforce are putting greater pressure on IT departments to allow them to use their own mobile devices, unfettered Internet access and wide-open social networks. These are so important that they're willing to accept less pay to get them. An online survey conducted by Cisco found that one third of the 1,400 respondents would sacrifice pay for an environment where they can use their own devices. Cisco predicts these increasing demands will disrupt IT departments, which are already struggling with the Consumerization of IT. More and more, denying devices can result in losing – or never getting to hire – the best people. Even in an economy where unemployment hovers at 9 percent and employees would seem to have little leverage, these expectations may speak toward how the nature of work/play has changed. More and more, employees are virtually always at work. They expect to use their own devices and have access to social media as a tradeoff for being expected to answer e-mail at 10:00pm. "It's a concept we're seeing more and more today," says Dan Croft, president and CEO of Mission Critical Wireless, "A blurring of personal and business in our daily lives. The definition of when you are working and when you are not working has blurred so dramatically compared to how it was 20 years ago." Plus, he says, "These wireless devices are very personal things and the more the company intrudes in their personal space the less likely they will want to work for them." The survey also showed:

• More than half (55 percent of college students and 62 percent of employees) say they couldn't live without the Internet and cite it as an "integral part of their lives."
• If forced to make a choice between one or the other, 64 percent of college students globally would choose an Internet connection instead of a car.
• Forty percent say the Internet is more important to them than dating, going out with friends, or listening to music.