There was a time when, in order to have a conversation with a celebrity, you had to stand outside the stage exit of a London theatre or club in the freezing cold for three hours; and, even then, there was no guarantee that you would get the dialogue you so longed for. If you were lucky, they'd brush past you, and you might catch a whiff of their sweat.
That's all changed now, of course. With the advent of social networking, plebeians like you and I - who scratch around in the dirt for a living and pick fleas out of each other's hair - have the opportunity of 'talking' to a celebrity without even leaving the house.
There was a time when receiving a tweet from Stephen Fry was a rather large desire of mine, like the ability to possess other peoples' bodies, or magic away my mortgage. Now I'm older, wiser, and a tad more realistic, and this overwhelming lustful passion for a short message from the Tollund Man himself has subsided into just being A Very Nice Thing Indeed.
Still, a message from The Fry tends to evoke rapturous delirium from those to whom he has typed a few characters. In response to a request regarding his beloved Norwich City FC, Fry responded 'Got [sic, Fry, you lazy bones] to twibbon.com and follow the instructions...'
This led to an outpouring of bubbly ecstasy from the recipient of his advice, 'BigT97bhs', who - with, one supposes, spittle-drenched lips and frantic fingers - typed out the following response - and this is all [sic]: 'could u follow me coz u r amazing and r u going to be their on the first day of the season'.
Whether Stephen decided to follow him or not is neither here nor there. But there's certainly no doubt in my mind that bridging the gap between prince and pauper can only be a good thing. We can see what our favourite celebs are doing; they can raise awareness for charities, and other worthy campaigns; and it makes them seem a tad more normal. It also allows us to convey our views directly to the actor, politician, sportsperson, etc., bypassing the need to vent our fury at another terrible England performance on a forum lurking somewhere in the nether regions of cyberspace.
I say that this can only be a good thing, but of course there are exceptions. Manchester United midfielder Darren Gibson was hounded off Twitter within a couple of hours of joining, as fans and non-fans rounded on him to level such accusations as '@dgibbo28 hasn't tweeted yet. Seems somewhat fitting after the countless anonymous performances we've seen from the 'footballer'', and the particularly cutting 'the biggest compliment that I can give you is that you are better than Carrick'.
Darren Gibson, in the face of this onslaught, had the presence of mind to leave Twitter. Some celebrities, however, fight back - and earn themselves a few inches of negative press in the process. Take Gibson's team-mate, for example, the rather well-known Wayne Rooney. After a Liverpool fan branded him a 'fat whore' and threatened to smash his head in with a pitching wedge, Rooney rather graciously invited him to travel to the United training ground and 'do it'. Not to be deterred, the Liverpool fan - who has since left Twitter - declared that he would 'be down tomorrow lad in me twin turbo nissan micra.'
Rooney became incensed by either the threat of an impending Tiger Woods-style club-bashing or the lack of correct grammar, and retaliated: 'I'll put you asleep within 10 seconds hope u turn up if u don't gonna tell everyone ur scared u little nit. I'll be waiting.'
You have to wonder how many words Rooney typed and then backspaced before settling on 'nit'. Still, this rather fiery war of words made it into the national press, prompting Rooney to back-pedal furiously and claim it was all 'banter'.
I'm yet to receive that elusive text from Stephen Fry. However, I have been tweeted in my time by such prominent figures as Graham Linehan, the writer of the IT Crowd and Father Ted; Alex Winters, of CBeebies fame; and Rufus Hound, who kindly informed me that no, he hadn't received the copy of my book I'd sent to his agent, but declared that it was, no doubt, a 'literary triumph'. Oh, and Lauren Laverne, who penned a rather forgettable and quite disparaging remark about the same book. I bit my tongue, deleted a rather acidic response about the tepidity of her comedy career, and moved on.
As well as allowing us mere mortals to even think of approaching lofty celebrities, Twitter allows them to respond to derogatory comments about their talents. And I am yet to find a better retort than one typed in smug fury by Frankie Muniz, star of the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. I'll leave it here, for your viewing pleasure.