Marginalia are notes in margins (NYU, Department of Media, Culture and Communication). It is as old as script, which descends from two thousand years ago (Robert 10). Marginalia can be separated into three categories based their diverse social functions. The first part was called Competition ended at around 1700. The second part was about 1700 to 1820, called Sociability. The final part on this timeline is from 1820 to the present, which is called Subjectivity (Jackson 44). The marginalia have many forms, including summaries, extracts, cross-references, glosses, illustrations, opinion expressions, reminiscences, and imitations (Jackson, ‘Marginal Frivolities’: Readers’ Notes as Evidence for the History of Reading 143). There are two merits of the marginalia, privation and flexibility (Young). Privation makes reader more relax when they are writing in the margin of a book, because they do not have to share their personal idea with somebody they do not know. Also, the privation protects readers from other readers’ counterattacking. The flexibility of marginalia allows people to choose more forms than words for expressing ideas, such as illustrations, diagrams, or even icons.

After the innovation of E-life, digital life is now the basic lifestyle of young people. 32.7% of world’s population is now understanding and using the Internet[1] (Internet World Stats), with millions of people reading millions of blogs per day[2] (Arnold). Another case report about blog comments showed about 28% of weblogs has comments (Glance and Mishne 2). Blogs are an instant way to connect them to the external world. Also, compared to marginalia, blog commenting is more fashionable and popular. 65% of blog readers say yes to blog commenting (McCombie). As an advanced way of online communication, blog commenting has its own value and features to explain its fashion.

In the first place, one of characteristics of blog commenting is instantaneousness (Lovink 124). In this fast-pace society, more people are seeking efficiency rather than accumulation. Blog commenting could achieve this goal better than marginalia, which needs to be read after the reader has finished the whole book. Instantaneousness is another reason why people choose to read blogs over the printed material. The second feature is facing more types of audience than marginalia. This is the big difference and advance from marginalia. Marginalia will be presented beside the text in a book. The second reader that reads this marginalia should have a passion in the book, since each book will have their target audience. However, when people commented after reading, whoever the next reader is, the blog comment will have influence on his reading and understanding of the blog. The last one is blog comments will and largely influence the thought of bloggers (Walker 5). People who subscribe to the blog are readers, but they become bloggers through commenting. The blogger will read all the comments below his texts, so that his motives and thoughts for his next blog entry will be influenced by those comments. However, the marginalia cannot influence the thinking of authors of the book, since the marginalia is much more private action than blog commenting.

Comparing two forms of communications with readers, the blog has more advantages. The number of people who read physical books is gradually reducing, because of the accessibility to influential, fashionable, and an instant source to get to the world. Nevertheless, the singularity of one form of blog commenting has limited the creativity and presentations of readers’ thought.

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Work Cited

Arnold, Bruce. Caslon Analytics Blogging. Feb.2009. Web. 4 Mar.2012 <http://www.caslon.com.au/weblogprofile1.htm>.

Glance, Natalie and Gilad Mishne. Leave a Reply: An Analysis of Weblog Comments. Case Analysis. Information Institute. Amsterdam, 2008. Print.

Internet World Stats. Usage and Population Stats. 2011. Web. 4 Mar.2012 <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>.

Jackson, H.J. “‘Marginal Frivolities’: Readers’ Notes as Evidence for the History of Reading.” Owners, Annotators and the Signs of Reading (2005): 137. Print.

—. Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books. New Heaven and London: Yale University Press, 2001. Print.

Lovink, Geert. Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture. New York; London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008. Print.

McCombie, Rachel. To Blog Comment or Not to Blog Comment? 65% Say YES to Blog Commenting! 22 Dec. 2011. Web. 02 Mar.2012 <http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2011/12/to-blog-comment-or-not-to-blog-comment-65-say-yes-to-blog-commenting.html>.

NYU, Department of Media, Culture and Communication. Marginalia. 2010. Web. 05 Mar.2012 <http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Marginalia#Forms_of_Marginalia>.

Robert, Hauptman. Documentation: a History and Critique of Attribution, Commentary, Glosses, Marginalia, Notes, Bibliographies, Work-Cited Lists, and Citation Indexing and Anaylysis. London: McFarland, 2008. Print.

Walker, D.M. “Blog Commenting: A New Political Information Space.” Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 2006: 1-10. Print.

Young, Jeffrey R. “Blog Comments vs. Peer Review: Which Way Makes a Book Better?” The Chronicle of Higher Education 21.54 (2008).Print.