Sometimes we take all of this social media, Internet marketing, and self-promotion stuff too seriously. Many of us look for role models to help shape what we do and how we do it. There are times when we take it too far and slip into adoration and idol worship.

A powerful example of possibly misapplied hero worship was served up a few days ago by Duncan Riley, Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins, and John Reese. John Reese, who I had not heard of before seeing these blog posts, is a businessman who has attracted a following among Internet marketers, affiliate marketers, and other like-minded individuals. John is also one of the people behind BlogRush, a widget system that was intended to help bring traffic to the people who signed up to use that particular system. BlogRush is not regarded by a success by a number of bloggers for various reasons – I’ve not used it so I can’t comment with authority.

The catalyst for this discussion was John Reese sending an E-Mail to his subscriber list that extolled the use of Twitter for people who want to do business over the Web or using the Web. Both Rizzn and Duncan were very critical of Reese’s approach of using Twitter. This led to a series of heated discussions and blog posts.

I’m not here to say who’s right or wrong. What I do want to point out is the comments section of John Reese’s response at this own blog.

Take some time to read through the comments at Reese’s blog. Read through the trackbacks recorded at Duncan’s original posts, including Mark’s posts at Mashable.

What kind of a picture does this paint for you? Do you see a lot of people in attack mode? Or in ultra-defensive mode?

Do you see much in the way of rational discourse throughout these discussions?

I have a feeling that John Reese puts his pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us (or maybe he’s developed a Wallace and Grommit invention to get dressed in record time; I don’t know). Similarly, I think that both Duncan and Rizzn wrote some things which should not have been interpreted literally and quite possibly were designed to grab some attention.

What I do think is that a lot of people reacted pretty strongly to this whole thing and reinforced some stereotypes.

That doesn’t do anyone any good in the long term.

It’s one thing to defend someone that you admire. It’s another thing to do so by trying to tear down their critics, which we saw in the various responses. That’s worth thinking about.

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