Questions to Ask About Technology
Questions to ask about technology when you are the one leading the conversation: a teacher or ESL tutor with a class, a team lead, a parent at the table, or one of two people talking. They start with everyday devices and habits, move through social media and attention, work and school, privacy and AI, and end with a group to ask of any new technology before you adopt it. Each has a note on what a thoughtful or a worrying answer sounds like, and what to do with it.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Everyday tech
What piece of technology would you find hardest to give up for a month?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone says their phone, so ask which one thing on it they would miss first. A useful answer names a job, such as maps, the family group chat or paying for the bus, and that job is what the rest of the conversation can build on. With a class, take a show of hands by device before anyone explains.
What is the first thing you look at on a screen in the morning, and the last thing at night?
Why ask it
People answer this quickly and then hear themselves. Messages and the alarm are ordinary; news or work email before getting out of bed is worth a follow-up about how the day goes after that. Keep your own reaction neutral, because a room that feels judged starts giving the answers it thinks you want.
Which device or app has made your daily life better, and what did you do before you had it?
Why ask it
The second half does the work. Someone who can describe the old way, the paper map, the phone call to check a train, the trip to the bank, can also say what went away with it. With language learners it is good practice for 'used to'.
What technology do you own that you hardly ever use?
Why ask it
Fitness trackers, tablets, kitchen gadgets and smart speakers come up a lot. Ask why it was bought and when it stopped being picked up. The distance between the promise and the drawer is worth keeping in mind the next time something new looks tempting.
Who in your family gets called when something stops working, and how did they get that job?
Why ask it
Every household has one, and it is not always the youngest. The story of how they learned, by trial and error, through a job or from a patient friend, says more about confidence with technology than age does. If the person answering is the one who gets called, ask what they wish the others would try first.
What do you do with your phone when you are eating with other people?
Why ask it
Face down, in a pocket, on the table just in case, or in another room: each is a small rule somebody made. At a family table, let everyone answer, adults included, before anyone proposes a rule. Children notice very quickly when a question only applies to them.
What was the first phone, computer or game console you remember at home?
Why ask it
Best in a mixed-age group, where the answers run from a shared family landline to a tablet. Let the oldest and the youngest person describe theirs to each other. It is often the moment a group stops talking as though everybody met technology the same way.
What do you still prefer to do on paper or in person, even though there is an app for it?
Why ask it
Shopping lists, birthday cards, banking, reading a novel and buying shoes are common answers. Push for the reason, because trust, memory, pleasure and habit are four different ones. When someone says they do nothing on paper anymore, ask what they last wrote by hand.
If you could un-invent one everyday technology, which would it be?
Why ask it
Expect leaf blowers, car alarms, group chats and the smartphone itself. Make the person say what would disappear along with it, since the honest version of this question has a cost. In a debate class, have someone else defend the thing that was just abolished.
What do you wish someone would invent?
Why ask it
Small, practical answers are the best ones: a way to find the keys, a charger that fits everything, a fridge that says what is about to go bad. Ask whether something close to it already exists, and why they do not use it. With a class, have pairs pitch their invention in one minute and let the room vote.
Which apps do you open without having decided to?
Why ask it
The wording separates habit from choice, and most people can name the app at once. A thumb that finds the icon by itself is a normal answer and nothing to confess. Follow with what they were doing in the moment before, which is usually waiting, or avoiding a task.
How do you feel after half an hour of scrolling, compared with before you started?
Why ask it
Let people choose their own word, whether rested, entertained, behind or irritated, and do not supply one. The answer often depends on what they were looking at, so ask which kind of scrolling leaves them better off. Skip the lecture, since the comparison makes the point without help.
What is the best thing social media has brought into your life?
Why ask it
Ask this before the critical questions, or the conversation turns into a pile-on that teenagers in particular stop joining. Real answers are specific: a cousin abroad, a hobby group, a band, a job lead. A person who cannot name one may simply not use it much, which is worth knowing too.
Have you ever deleted an app or taken a break from one, and what happened next?
Why ask it
Some people felt lighter, some missed invitations and news about friends, and plenty were back within a week. All three are honest answers. With the ones who went back, be curious about what pulled them, and leave the teasing out.
How would you know if you were spending too much time on a screen?
Why ask it
This asks for a personal test and leaves the number of hours out of it. Good answers are signs you can observe: sleep slipping, a hobby dropped, someone at home complaining, reaching for the phone in the middle of a conversation. 'I would just know' is the answer to press gently, by asking what they would notice first.
Do people behave differently online than they do face to face, and why do you think that is?
Why ask it
Most groups agree that they do and then disagree about the cause: distance, an audience, anonymity, speed. Ask each person whether they are different online themselves, which is harder to answer than the general version. With younger students, keep it to examples they have seen and do not ask for names.
At what age should a child have a phone of their own, and what should it be able to do?
Why ask it
Asking what the phone can do keeps this from becoming a vote on a number, because one that only calls and texts and one with every app are different decisions. Families, schools and countries settle it differently, so ask what is normal where your group lives and whether they agree with it. Parents and teenagers in one room will answer for each other, so let each side speak for itself first.
Where does your news come from, and how did it get in front of you?
Why ask it
Many people have never traced the route: a friend shared it, an app recommended it, a headline appeared under a video. 'I went looking for it' and 'it was just there' put a person in different positions when a false story comes around. Have each person follow one story from today back to where they first saw it.
When did you last believe something online that turned out to be false?
Why ask it
Go first with one of your own, since nobody likes being the only person who was fooled. The useful part is how they found out: a friend, a correction, a second search, or the thing simply not happening. That leaves the group with a short list of checks that have worked for people they know.
Work and school
What part of your work or schoolwork has technology made easier, and what has it made harder?
Why ask it
Ask for one of each from everybody, since the same tool is often both: email is quicker than a letter and there is far more of it. Answers that are all gain or all loss have usually not been thought about for long. A team lead can write the 'harder' answers down as a list of things to fix.
Should phones be out or put away during a class or a meeting, and who should decide?
Why ask it
Start with the rule your own school or workplace has, since each sets its own, and whether anyone follows it. Then give the time to who decides, because a rule people helped write lands differently from one handed down. Listen for the difference between 'I need it for work' and 'I cannot leave it alone'.
What do you lose when a class or a meeting moves to a screen, and what do you gain?
Why ask it
Travel time and flexibility are the usual gains. Side conversations, reading the room and knowing when to speak are the usual losses. Whoever is quiet on video calls should be asked directly and kindly, and if your own group meets online, the answers tell you what to change about your sessions.
Which skill are people losing because a device does it for them, and does that matter?
Why ask it
You will hear handwriting, map reading, mental arithmetic, spelling and remembering phone numbers. To keep it from turning into a grumble, take each skill and ask what happens on the day the device is not there. A thoughtful answer sorts the list into skills worth keeping and ones that can go.
Which jobs do you think technology will change most in the next ten years?
Why ask it
Nobody knows, so treat every answer as a guess and ask for the reasoning. Notice whether a person picks someone else's job or their own. For students choosing a path, follow with which parts of the work they want would still need a person, and why they think so.
How quickly do you feel you have to reply to a message from work or school?
Why ask it
There are two answers here, the written expectation and the one people feel, and they are often far apart. What counts as reasonable depends on the employer, the school and sometimes the law where you are, so ask what the actual policy says. A team lead who hears 'within minutes, even at night' has something to act on.
What should everyone leaving school today know how to do with a computer?
Why ask it
The list gets long fast (typing, searching well, spotting a scam, keeping files in order, a little code), so make each person choose three. Disagreement about the three is the discussion. Adults can add the one thing they had to teach themselves and wish someone had shown them.
Privacy and security
What do you think your phone knows about you?
Why ask it
Have people list it aloud: location, contacts, photos, searches, purchases, sleep. Nobody needs to be alarmed, only to notice that the list is longer than the first guess. What a device or an app collects differs by maker and by setting, so end by having everyone open one app's permissions and read what is switched on.
What was the last thing you agreed to without reading it?
Why ask it
Almost everyone laughs, because almost everyone has. Leave the shame out and ask the practical follow-up: which two or three lines would be worth finding in a long agreement? What the service collects, who it shares that with and how to delete an account are a fair start.
Have you ever searched for your own name, and what came up?
Why ask it
An easy, concrete way into what is public about a person. Nobody has to share the results, only whether anything surprised them. If an old profile or an unexpected photo turns up, the site's own help pages are the place to find out how removal works there.
Which free service would you pay for if paying meant it stopped collecting information about you?
Why ask it
It makes the trade behind free apps visible without a lecture. A price in reply means the person has thought about what their information is worth to them. 'None, I have nothing to hide' is common and deserves a real follow-up, such as whether they would hand their unlocked phone to a stranger.
How do you feel about cameras in streets, stores and on doorbells?
Why ask it
Safer and watched are both reasonable, and often the same person feels both depending on whose camera it is. Ask where they would draw the line: a store, a neighbor's door, a classroom, a fitting room. The rules on recording people vary a great deal from place to place, so treat any claim about what is legal as something to look up locally.
Should parents be able to see where their children are or read their messages, and at what age should that stop?
Why ask it
Location and messages are different questions, and a group that separates them is thinking well. With a parent and a teenager at the same table, have each state the other's worry before their own. Then ask whether the child would know about the arrangement, since secrecy is often what the argument is really about.
Who should be allowed to see what you do on a school or work device?
Why ask it
Some assume nobody is looking and others that everything is watched. What is actually logged or visible depends on the school, the employer and local rules, so the honest next step is to ask the administrator or read the policy. Until then, a cautious habit is to keep personal matters on a personal device.
What is the most convincing scam message you have ever received?
Why ask it
People enjoy telling these, and the details teach more than a warning does: the delivery that needed a fee, the boss who wanted gift cards, the relative with a new number. Ask what gave it away, or what nearly did not. If someone admits they were taken in, thank them, because that story is the one the others will remember.
If someone got into one of your accounts tonight, which one would do the most damage?
Why ask it
Banking is the first guess, but for many people it is email, because that is where the reset links for the other accounts are sent. Do not ask anyone to describe their passwords in front of a group. Finish by having each person name one thing they will change this week, such as a reused password or a second sign-in step.
AI
Have you used an AI tool this week, and what did you ask it to do?
Why ask it
Start with use, since opinions about AI are easier to hold than experience of it. The tasks show what people trust it with: a recipe and a cover letter are a long way apart. In a class or a team, ask as if the answer is yes, or people who worry about being judged will say no.
What excites you about AI, and what worries you?
Why ask it
Hold each person to both halves, because a room sorts itself into fans and doubters if you let it. Jobs, cheating and fake pictures are the usual worries, so ask which of them the person has seen happen and which they have only read about. The ones seen firsthand make the better discussion.
How can you tell whether a picture, a video or a piece of writing was made by AI, and does it matter?
Why ask it
People name tells such as odd hands or flat prose, and those tells keep changing, so do not let the group settle on a checklist. The better habit to draw out is asking where a thing came from and who is vouching for it. 'Does it matter' divides the room usefully between a birthday card and a news photograph.
When is using AI for schoolwork or a job a help, and when is it cheating?
Why ask it
Ask for examples on each side of the line and see where people put getting an explanation, fixing grammar, making an outline and producing the whole piece. Rules differ by school, teacher and employer, and many are still being written, so have people find out what applies to them instead of guessing. A worrying answer is 'whatever I can get away with'; a good one mentions what the work was for.
Would you trust an AI's answer about your health, your money or a legal problem, and what would you check first?
Why ask it
The sensible middle treats it as a way to prepare questions for a doctor, an adviser or a lawyer, and says how a claim would be checked. Complete trust and complete refusal are both worth a follow-up about a time it was right or wrong for them. Keep it about habits, and do not let the conversation turn into trading advice.
Which decisions should always be made by a person and never left to software?
Why ask it
The usual candidates are hiring, grading, medical choices, sentencing and who gets a loan. Ask what exactly the person adds: judgment, mercy, someone to hold responsible, or the feeling of having been heard. Anyone who says 'none, people are biased too' has given you the other half of a good debate.
If an AI system makes a mistake that harms someone, who should be held responsible?
Why ask it
The maker, the company that chose to use it, the person who followed its advice, or nobody: have the group pick one and defend it. A self-driving car and a wrong answer from a homework helper make good contrasting cases. How the law handles it depends on where you are, so keep the talk on what would be fair.
Could a chatbot be a good friend, and what would be missing?
Why ask it
Some people in the room may already talk to one regularly, so ask without mockery. Always available and never impatient are the points in favor; shared history, being needed back and someone who can show up at the door are the usual gaps. If a student says it is the only one they talk to, stay kind and follow up privately afterward.
New technology
What problem is this supposed to solve, and do we actually have that problem?
Why ask it
The first question to put to any new device, app or system, at home or at work. A good answer names the trouble in ordinary words and gives a recent example of it. If the best anyone can do is 'everyone is getting one' or 'it is the future', the purchase can wait until the problem shows up.
Could something we already have do the same job?
Why ask it
Walk through what is already in the house, the classroom or the office: the phone with a timer on it, the shared calendar nobody opens, a feature in software you already pay for. 'Yes, but this one is nicer' is an honest answer, and a different reason to buy than need. When the answer is a clear no, you have also written down what the new thing has to do.
What does it replace, and what goes away along with the old way of doing it?
Why ask it
Every tool pushes something out: a paper form, a phone call, a walk to a colleague's desk, a skill. Write down the old way's side benefits, such as the chat that happened at that desk, and decide whether you mind losing them. An answer of 'nothing, it is extra' means one more thing to maintain and check.
Who gains the most if we adopt this, and who is worse off?
Why ask it
Somebody usually is: the person who has to enter the data, the grandparent who cannot work the new app, the child whose school now expects a device at home. Naming them is the purpose, and a group that cannot think of anyone has not looked far enough. Once they are named, ask what would make it fair for them, such as training, a paper option or a loaned device.
How do we know it works, apart from what the people selling it tell us?
Why ask it
A solid answer points to someone with nothing to gain: a school, a team or a family like yours that has used it for a while and is willing to talk. Reviews, demonstrations and the company's own figures are where to begin and not where to stop. If you can, borrow one or run a short trial with the people who will use it, and ask the provider whether that is possible.
Who is paying for this, and how does the company behind it make its money?
Why ask it
A purchase price, a subscription, advertising and selling information about its users each pull a product in a different direction. If nobody in the room can say how a free tool earns its keep, find out before relying on it. The company's own pricing and privacy pages are the place to look, and they change, so check the date.
What information does it collect about us, and where does that go?
Why ask it
Ask for the specifics: what is recorded, who can see it, how long it is kept and whether it can be deleted. Good answers come from the provider's own documents, and 'I assume it is fine' is the one to stop on. For a school or a workplace, ask the person responsible how it is handled there, because the same product can be set up very differently.
What happens when it breaks, the battery dies or the company shuts the service down?
Why ask it
Picture the bad day in detail: the smart lock with no power, the class with no connection, the photos held by a service that has closed. A sound answer includes a fallback that somebody has actually tried. If everything stops when the tool does, you have learned how much you would be depending on it.
What will it cost us over a year, counting time, attention and upkeep as well as money?
Why ask it
Have the group list the hidden costs: setting it up, learning it, charging it, updating it, the notifications it sends, the subscription that renews. Take the price and the renewal terms from the provider's current page, because the figure people remember is often an old one. A fair answer adds it all up and still says yes, or changes its mind.
How hard would it be to stop using it once we have started?
Why ask it
Think about the photos, messages, files, contacts and habits that would be stuck inside. Easy to leave is a good sign, and so is a clear way to take your things with you, so ask the provider how export and account deletion work there. People seldom raise this until they want out, which is the worst time to find out.
What new problems might it create that we do not have today?
Why ask it
Give this a silent minute or two, and collect answers on paper if you are with a group, because the first person to speak sets the tone. Distraction, arguments about rules, a new thing to lose or break, a new way to be reached: none is a reason to refuse, only a list to plan for. No answers at all is the worrying result.
Who decided we need this, and who was left out of the decision?
Why ask it
At work it may be a manager who will never open the tool, and at home it may be whoever saw the advertisement. Bring in the people who will live with it daily, including children if it is a family device, and ask what they would want it to do. Their objections are cheap to hear now and expensive later.
How will we know in six months whether it was worth it?
Why ask it
Agree on the sign in advance: time saved, fewer arguments, a better grade, a task nobody dreads anymore. Put a date in the calendar to ask again, and let the people who live with it do the judging. If nobody can say what success would look like, the problem it was meant to solve was never pinned down, so settle that before you buy.
How to lead a conversation about technology
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Which questions for which room
A class or an ESL group
Open with Everyday tech, where every answer is an object or a short story and nobody needs an opinion yet. Put students in pairs for two or three questions, then take one answer from each pair. The questions that ask for two things, a gain and a loss, a hope and a limit, give learners a ready shape for a longer sentence.
A team at work
Work and school and New technology are the two groups to use, and they fit a meeting better one or two at a time than as a list. Ask the 'harder' and 'worse off' halves first and write the answers where everyone can see them. People speak more freely when the tool under discussion was not chosen by the person asking, so say so if it was.
A family table
Pick three questions and answer them yourself as well. The groups on social media and on privacy hold the ones families argue about, so begin with a light one from Everyday tech and let the youngest person choose the next. Leave rule-making for another day. A conversation that ends in a new rule teaches children not to answer the next one.
Two people talking
Take turns choosing and answer every question you ask. The AI group and the un-invent question are the liveliest for two, because you can disagree at length without a room watching.
Running the discussion
Begin with what people do, then ask what they think
The list is ordered that way on purpose: devices and habits, then attention, work and privacy, then AI and decisions about new tools. A group that has already described its own mornings and its own apps argues about the larger questions with examples in hand.
Ask for one of each
Many of these questions have two halves: easier and harder, gain and loss, who benefits and who does not. Hold people to both. It keeps the enthusiast and the skeptic in the same conversation and stops the session from sorting the room into two camps.
Follow one answer further
Three questions followed properly make a better session than fifteen read aloud. The notes suggest a next question for most answers. When one lands, stay with it and drop the rest of your plan.
Protect what people share
Never ask anyone to show a screen, read out a screen time figure or describe a password in front of others. The privacy questions work as shows of hands or general answers. If a young person describes something that worries you, such as contact from a stranger or pressure online, thank them, end that thread calmly and follow your school's or organization's own process afterward.
Using the last group on a real decision
Choose one actual thing
The New technology questions are flat in the abstract and sharp when pointed at something specific: a phone for a twelve-year-old, a tablet program at school, a new scheduling app for the team, a smart doorbell. Name the thing before you start and keep every answer about it.
Answer before you buy, and write it down
Go through the group in order, since each question leans on the one before: the problem, what you already have, what is replaced, who gains and loses, the proof that it works, the money, the information, the bad day, the full cost, the way out, the new problems and who was left out of the choice. A sentence per question on one sheet is enough. Gaps on the sheet are the things to find out.
Find out what depends on the provider or the place
Prices, renewal terms, what is collected, how deletion works, what a school or employer may monitor and what the law allows all differ by provider, organization and location, and they change. Treat anything said from memory in the room as a guess, and send someone to read the current terms or ask the person responsible how it works there.
Ask again later
The last question in the group sets a date. Keep the sheet, and when the date comes, read the answers back to the people who have been living with the tool. Deciding to stop is a legitimate result of that second conversation.
Common mistakes
Turning the discussion into a lecture
If the person leading already knows the conclusion, screens bad or progress good, the group can tell and stops offering real answers. Ask the question that favors technology as seriously as the one that doubts it.
Letting the most confident users answer for everyone
In most rooms a few people know a lot about devices and are quick to speak. Go to the person who says they are 'not a tech person' early. Their account of what confuses or excludes them is often the most useful thing said.
Treating a rule from one place as true everywhere
Phone rules in schools, monitoring at work, recording in public and the use of AI in coursework are settled differently from one country, state, school and employer to the next. When someone states a rule as fact, ask where it applies and how they know.
Mistaking a forecast for a fact
Questions about future jobs and what AI will do invite confident predictions. Nobody in the room knows. Ask what the prediction is based on and what would change the person's mind, and the guess becomes worth discussing.