Twitter’s glory days numbered?

I know, another journalist wrting about Twitter. There will be only one mention of Stephen Fry is post and you have just read it, if that helps.

This story on peerless comedy website Chortle offers an interesting commentary on the brilliance of Twitter and the reason why ultimately its brilliance may well be stifled.

My colleague Rachel Quigley wrote on her blog about the relative ease with which she contacted Rob Brydon on Twitter, and managed to persuade him to do an interveiw for our student arts’ supplement, an offer “his people” would almost certainly have sniggered off the line.

The kind of direct access Rachel enjoyed was fantastic, and Rob’s interview a great success. Likewise hearing Robert Webb rant against a reviewer in exactly the way he did last Friday was brilliantly refreshing, so rare has real, forthright opinion from people in the public eye become.

But how long before the insufferable PR minions of the rich and famous take over their Twitter accounts? It is already well established that many of the Facebook profiles of celebrities are actually the responsibility of some work experience underling at their PR company.

If Twitter goes the same way, then it will lose a huge part of its appeal. If it doesn’t, then it will strike the first real blow against the over-managed, overslick PR mechanisms which control our access with such precious,self-importance.

And if they do take a hit, then we might be able to start talking about a digital “revolution” less in hyperbole and more in hope.