Everyone probably did it at some point in his or her primary school career. My teacher, Mrs. Ashworth, asked my fourth-grade class to decide who they wanted to send a letter to. The class buzzed about getting to pick from the brightest stars of the time: “Weird” Al Yankovic, any of the Spice Girls and of course, Hanson. Dejected after someone had already picked Ginger Spice for their letter, I chose Ken Griffey Jr., whose brilliant career was in full swing. Griffey Jr. won the MVP the year before, already immortalized in a video game and needed to hear from me about it. I thought it was the coolest thing that we had such close and personal contact with these stars that all it took was a letter to talk with a major leaguer.

Today, the social-networking site Twitter provides the same type of interaction. The brainchild of Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, Twitter allows its users to express thoughts in 140 characters, akin to a Facebook status with a word limit. The really cool thing is just about everyone uses it. While you can “follow” your friends and read their posts, you can also interact with these celebrities by mentioning them in tweets and following their posts.

I follow many sports figures, including athletes and journalists on the professional and collegiate levels. And everyone uses their account in their own way. When his Bengals have an away game, NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco (@GOchoCinco) will tweet his location and entertain the first 100 people who show up with dinner, movies, etc. Earlier this summer, Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant (@KDthunderup) announced the signing of his five-year contract extension through a tweet. When Bill Simmons (@sportsguy33) accidentally tweeted “moss vikings,” it became the latest sports story to break via Twitter. Plus, interacting with former Jayhawks like @SHERRONCOLLINS4 and @colea45 as well as current Kansas athletes like Brady Morningstar (@bmstar12) and Toben Opurum (Toben_Opurum35) is much easier with Twitter.

I got a response from the Seattle Mariners organization thanking me for my letter and some other stuff I didn’t read after I realized my request for Griffey’s cleats was not fulfilled. But I remember how cool it was holding that letter with the Mariners logo on the envelope and my name on the letter. Being able to talk with these prominent names in sports by tweeting is just as cool. Now if only Ginger Spice would sign up.

— Edited by David Cawthon