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

　　我是一個英語系大二的學生。上周我們有一個關于偶像崇拜的討論，我突然有了一個問題——“我們真的需要偶像嗎?如果需要的話，哪一種偶像值得我們期待?”這里有很多的問題產生者，電視提供了很多節目，為年輕人創造了很多的偶像，就像超女選秀。這兒也有很多諸如“感動中國”和“對話”這樣的節目談論著不同行業的知名人士。

　　很多人常常在討論那些名人們有趣和動人的行為。通過這些途徑，我們從年輕的偶像們身上學到了最新的時尚，了解到了企業家們的艱辛，我們擴大了視野，發現原來我們身邊有這么多平凡但卻為我們的生活做出了巨大的貢獻的人。然而，仍然很難找到一個可以代表我們這個時代的偶像，因為社會的變化和發展太快了。太多的信息涌入人們的腦海——時尚，潮流，權力，還有物質享受。因此，很容易在社會中迷失。這帶來了一個問題，如果我們需要去選擇一個代表我們這個時代的偶像，究竟該是誰呢?