I am a sophomore majoring in English. Last week we had a debate about idol adoration and I suddenly came upon a question—“do we really need an idol? If so, what kind of idol are we looking for?” As the main information provider, TV is still providing a lot of programs that “create” idols for young people, such as the Super Girls competition. Also there are many other programs that talk about widely-known people in different walks of life, such as Moving China and Dialogue.

　　Many people frequently discuss the fun and touching deeds of popular people. Through these methods, we learn about the latest fashion from young idols, we know about the hardships of entrepreneurs, and we broaden our perspective to notice that so many ordinary people who do common things but make great contributions to our lives. However, it is always difficult to find an “idol” to represent our times, because this society is developing and changing so fast. There is too much information poured into people’s mind—fashion, trends, power, and physical satisfaction. Therefore, it is easy to get lost in such an environment. So here comes the question. If we need to choose an idol to represent this period, whom should it be?

　　Yours,

　　Zhang Xiao

　　我是一个英语系大二的学生。上周我们有一个关于偶像崇拜的讨论，我突然有了一个问题——“我们真的需要偶像吗?如果需要的话，哪一种偶像值得我们期待?”这里有很多的问题产生者，电视提供了很多节目，为年轻人创造了很多的偶像，就像超女选秀。这儿也有很多诸如“感动中国”和“对话”这样的节目谈论着不同行业的知名人士。

　　很多人常常在讨论那些名人们有趣和动人的行为。通过这些途径，我们从年轻的偶像们身上学到了最新的时尚，了解到了企业家们的艰辛，我们扩大了视野，发现原来我们身边有这么多平凡但却为我们的生活做出了巨大的贡献的人。然而，仍然很难找到一个可以代表我们这个时代的偶像，因为社会的变化和发展太快了。太多的信息涌入人们的脑海——时尚，潮流，权力，还有物质享受。因此，很容易在社会中迷失。这带来了一个问题，如果我们需要去选择一个代表我们这个时代的偶像，究竟该是谁呢?