Blogging Makes You Smarter

I am not sure that it would count as anything close to dialectical, despite the dialectical-sounding description given at that Brainwaves site. The interaction of blogging is too slow, and does not involve enough "back and forth". Further, the format is all wrong for a dialectical search for truth: blogs are inherently static. However, given a quick-moving blog, perhaps set up in an educational setting (with a shared interest and shared body of knowledge) a blog could contribute to knowledge, and perhaps take on a dialectical flavour. Also, and here I am somewhat unfamiliar with the ancient texts on the on the matter but more familiar with the medieval Arabic texts (thinking here al-Farabi), dialectic must involve a disparity of authority. It seems to me that effective dialectic is not a synthesis (in any straightforward manner), instead, one person contributes a persuasive argument, while the other probes the argument without fully articulating a position. This sounds about right for blogs, except that there is not enough interaction to reveal the assumptions, shared beliefs, etc..