Recently we have seen a number of public figures who have acted below their stature. Martin Shkreli the infamous ex-CEO of pharmacy company Turing Pharmaceuticals spent 2 hours on the social media platform Periscope offering his stance on Australian school students who were able to recreate the parasitic infection drug that his company makes.

While yes, he is right that the chemistry behind the drug is not that complicated, that doesn’t mean he needs to attack the children with terms like “dumbass kids” and that the work that they did was the equivalent of “mixing baking soda and vinegar”.

The other was Andrew Laming, Liberal MP for Bowman who spent last week arguing with a Facebook page dedicated to poking fun at Australian politics using scenes from The Simpsons.

After the group picked up on Mr Laming’s Facebook post over the amount of teachers in our education system and likened it to the ramblings of an old man, Mr Laming spent some time arguing back and forth with the page before posting this message: “cleaning your sword after mashing 76,000 (mostly Green/ALP types) in your spare time on a weekend. #Positivelyunclean” before saying “It gets a bit uncomfortable doesn’t it? You know. Bag out MP. He closes you down. Quick, another meme. Maybe that’ll stop him laughing at me.”

I’m all for public figures engaging with the community and having an online profile but it doesn’t mean that they need to stoop to raking mud with the rest of us commoners.

The public figures of the past lacked the instant access to the public that today’s public figures have, which meant they were removed from the muck raking that was directed towards them in the pubs, clubs and homes of those who look up to them.

It meant they couldn’t get caught up in the public's petty arguments and could only be judged on the work they were doing, not their personalities.

When a personality wins over policy and actions you get president elect Trump.

What today’s public figures need to do is take a step back and think before they respond to the public online, a lesson Mr Laming should know, as back in 2011 he authored a three page guide for MPs on how to act with the public online.

It’s easy to give advice, harder to follow it.

By Matthew Chown