Harold,

I risk sounding anti-blog... but if you read with the perspective of a writer -- a person who expressed himself in words -- then you're likely to read and formulate your ideas at the same time, even in the print world.

Blogging can deliver you the opportunity to do that more readily --- can, not will, in something of the same way that word processing can deliver you the opportunity to write in a more clear, organized fashion (by making it easier to edit, rearrange, annotate).

And writing online can bring more immediate responses to your writing, meaning that you're connecting with a reader more directly than you would have on paper.

Hyperlinks absolutely offer the chance to extend the horizon, though also the risk you'll lose it in a forest of tangents.

One thing I was trying to say is that in the online world there can be just as much an echo-chamber effect as in the print world, with people reading and quoting and linking to the people who read and quote and link to them. That's not much of a way to develop critical thinking.

I'm not tossing out bathwater, let alone babies. And adults will most likely have to learn for themselves (through trial-and-error, or from example, or from friendly input). I was thinking more of ways to guide a young person's awareness and skill.