The explosive growth of the Internet creates both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities include the ability to communicate instantly with individuals and organizations across the world. Challenges include the need to shovel through the hype and dig out information you can trust.

Anybody with the right hardware and software can write e-mail, post a newsgroup message, or create a Web site. The result approaches pure democracy -- and pure anarchy. As you sift through the heaps of information looking for solid ideas, keep the following suggestions for critical thinking in mind.

Notice when people have something to sell. Creators of some Web sites want to sell you a product or service. Others want you to "buy" a particular point of view on an issue. Consider whether these purposes could influence the content of the Web site.

For example, see if a Web site for a medical school includes articles on alternative health care. And check whether a Web site about alternative health care links to any mainstream medical journals.

Search out diverse points of view. To get a broader perspective when you use the Internet, go beyond the Web sites created by people and organizations with views that you support. Also seek out contrasting viewpoints.

If you favor gun control, check out the National Rifle Association's site on the World Wide Web.

If you eat steak three times each week, then surf some sites created by vegetarians.

And before your next local election, get on the Internet to get informed about the candidates. Chances are that many of them have Web sites.

One advantage of using the Internet is that an opposing point of view is often just a few clicks away.

Back up sources. When you discover a key fact or figure on one Web site, see if you can find the same information on a related site or other Internet resource.

Say that you're reading an online version of your local newspaper and find a statistic for the number of people who die annually from cigarette smoking. Go to Web sites from the American Cancer Society or American Lung Association and see if they give a similar statistic.

Also check a library for relevant print sources. If one source says that cigarettes kill 100,000 people each year and another source puts the number at 500,000, then you've found a key discrepancy.

Be open-minded -- and skeptical. These two attitudes may seem to contradict. Yet you can use both if you practice them one at a time.

First, be open-minded about whatever you see on the Internet. Before you evaluate the stand taken by the author of an e-mail or a Web site, seek to understand the author's point of view.

But do make time for the second step -- evaluating the author's point of view. Use the guidelines for critical thinking suggested throughout Becoming a Master Student and Becoming a Critical Thinker.

Strategies for critical thinking--such as basing assertions on logic and evidence--are the same for information and ideas you get from any source, print or electronic. Hone your critical thinking skills on anything you see, read, or hear.