The TikTok Trend of Writing in Margins Is Based on Real Neuroscience

"Readers on TikTok and Instagram are making the aesthetics of reading more visible than ever with creative, and often intricate, annotations. Called marginalia, these markups can be elaborate, with notes that nearly fill full pages and that are color-coordinated with the book's cover. The emergence of such bookish note-taking has sparked a debate between enthusiasts and skeptics: Is the practice of marginalia a bad habit or a beneficial endeavor?"

"Marginalia have a long history: Leonardo da Vinci famously scribbled thoughts about gravity years before Galileo Galilei published his magnum opus on the subject; the discovery was waiting under our noses in the margins of Leonardo's Codex Arundel. Famous writers such as Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe are somewhat known for their marginalia, making their biographers both overjoyed and overwhelmed."

"Just last year Ann Patchett, a staple on any modern fiction shelves, told Literary Hub about the joys of reading her own books and annotating patterns she never before noticed. She created a unique edition of Tom Lake for dedicated deep readers, in which she included her own annotations on her own writing style. The Patchett-ception worked: the special edition raised money at an auction for indie bookstores during 2020,"

Contemporary readers on TikTok and Instagram display elaborate, aesthetic annotations—marginalia—that often fill pages and coordinate with book covers. The resurgence of this bookish note-taking has prompted debate over whether marginalia are harmful or beneficial. Marginalia have historical roots in Renaissance notebooks and the annotated pages of classic novelists. A prominent novelist produced a special annotated edition that raised funds for independent bookstores and later annotated a favorite classic. Neuroscientific research measuring brain electrical activity finds that handwriting enhances memory and comprehension, and reading experts emphasize annotation as a tool for deeper engagement with books.

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