- Less than half of Brits trust AI, with 78% worried about its long-term impact
- Handwriting activates more than 20 regions of the brain involved in memory, language, and creativity
While AI promises to make life easier, it’s also leaving many feeling creatively sidelined, and even celebrities are sounding the alarm. As Emma Thompson publicly blasted AI for trying to rewrite her own words and Joanna Lumley dismissed it as “dull,” their frustration reflects a growing sense that technology is overstepping into the creative process.
In recent weeks, celebrity frustration with AI has brought the debate into sharp focus. Emma Thompson’s exasperation went viral after she blasted AI tools for trying to rewrite her own sentences, saying she’d rather rely on the clarity that comes from “putting pen to paper” than have technology second-guess her voice. Joanna Lumley has been equally outspoken, dismissing AI as “dull” and insisting she prefers to write, create, and think without digital interference because it’s the human process that gives ideas their originality.
Their comments echo a growing cultural mood: that real creativity comes from the brain-to-hand connection, not from predictive text or algorithmic rewrites, and that writing by hand may be one of the last unfiltered creative acts we have left.
The UK’s Data (Use and Access) Bill has reignited tensions between technology and creativity, granting AI systems access to creative work without explicit consent. At the same time, Microsoft found that seven in ten (71%) UK workers use unapproved AI tools, often without telling their employers.
Yet public trust in the technology remains low: while almost three-quarters (69%) of Britons now use AI, less than half (42%) say they trust it, and three-quarters (78%) worry about its long-term impact. But it is the younger generations who are driving adoption, with three in five (62%) 16–34 year olds using generative AI compared to just one in ten (14%) over-55s; but even among them, disillusionment is growing.
As artificial intelligence accelerates, a quiet revival of analogues is taking place. British pen brand Scriveiner has analysed how handwriting is being rediscovered as a tool for focus, creativity, and wellbeing, as they’ve experienced a 340% increase in sales over the last year.
Working with qualified psychotherapist Eloise Skinner, Scriveiner explored what makes handwriting a uniquely human act, and why it may be the antidote to AI fatigue.
Eloise Skinner explained:
“There are a number of benefits of handwriting – research indicates that brain activity is more engaged during handwriting than using other forms of recording information, and our memory and brain health are also supported. Writing by hand can also help us with processing our thoughts, improving our spelling and grammar, and challenging us to develop a more deliberate, personal voice, especially when compared to writing options that encourage auto-correct or predictive language.”
She adds: “Handwriting can also be a more embodied experience, connecting our mind and body, and could even be seen as a form of meditative or mindfulness practice, if we can bring our minds fully into the present moment as we’re writing.”
Scientific studies continue to prove what many already feel instinctively. Handwriting activates more than 20 regions of the brain involved in memory, language, and creativity, far more than typing. Research shows that people who write by hand recall information up to 25% better and understand complex ideas 17% more effectively than those who type.
University experiments have also found that students using pen and paper to complete learning tasks are 25% faster and retain knowledge for longer. Among adults, handwriting has been linked to improved problem-solving, emotional regulation, and lower stress levels, with participants reporting a 27% reduction in anxiety after regular journaling.
This growing body of evidence reflects a broader cultural shift away from passive consumption and toward mindful creation, with “Slow Productivity” one of 2025’s defining lifestyle movements, encouraging people to focus deeply on fewer things. Across TikTok, the #journaling hashtag has surpassed six billion views, with a 28% increase in searches for notebooks and a 17% increase for journals in the past few months.
As automation shapes creativity, Scriveiner’s analysis suggests handwriting may become a defining act of resistance, not a rejection of technology, but a way to reclaim control, focus, and individuality in a world that increasingly blurs them.
Kirsty Cameron, Marketing Manager at Scriveiner, says: ‘Technology has transformed how we work and communicate, but it can’t replace the human mind. Writing by hand helps people slow down, think clearly, and reconnect with their ideas. In an age of automation, it’s how we make our thoughts our own again.’”
