100 Technology Topics for

Research Papers
Updated on February 28, 2019

Virginia Kearney
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Virginia has been a university English instructor for over 20 years. She specializes
in helping people write essays faster and easier.

Essay Topics on Technology

Will You Be a Problem Solver?

Every year, technological devices become faster, smaller, and smarter. In fact, your cell phone holds
more information than the room-sized computers that sent a man to the moon!
In my essay Can Today's College Students Solve World Problems?, I talk about how advances like
the green revolution and more fuel-efficient cars solved many of the problems that I worried about as
a college freshman in 1979. Yet these new solutions also cause new problems. For example, the
invention of the gasoline engine made travel faster and easier but also raised concerns about air
pollution and global warming.
This generation has many problems to solve, but as I've worked with college students over the last
25 years, I know they are poised and ready to be problem solvers. My goal in writing this article is to
motivate students to research problems they really care about so that they will be poised to find
creative and innovative solutions for our future. Below, you will find many questions, ideas, links,
research, and videos to get you started on your research essay.

This Article Includes

Steps for Researching
How to Write Your Paper
Over 100 Tech Topics:
1. General
2. Reproduction
3. Health
4. Genetic Engineering
5. Technical Experiments on Humans
6. Relationships and Media
7. War
8. Information and Communication Tech
9. Computer Science and Robotics

Researching technology can involve looking at how it solves problems, creates new
problems, and how interaction with technology has changed humankind.
Is Digital Reading Changing Our Brains? | Source

Steps in Researching
1. Understand your Research Assignment: What kind of a research paper has your instructor
assigned? Re-read your assignment sheet and any information in the textbook. For example, I
ask my students to choose a technology topic for a Summary, Analysis, and Response
essay which asks them to research three or more perspectives on an issue.
2. Find a Topic Idea: Look over the topic lists below to find a question that interests you. For
an Exploratory paper, you will need a topic which has three or more perspectives to explore. If
you are doing a Position, Argument, or a Cause paper, you will need to know the different
perspectives, but you will use your answer to the question as your thesis statement.
3. Read about the Topic: Once you find one you like, you can learn more about that issue by
looking at some of the hyperlinked articles. You can look for more research articles at your
school library or online at Google Scholar. Additionally, check science magazines for a non-
technical audience like Discover, Scientific American, or Popular Scientist. Science Daily is a
good website to check for breaking news and research.
4. Choose a Question to Research: After you find a topic idea you like, write out the question and
make a list of other similar issues or words you could use as keywords to research. You can
use the other questions on the topic list to help you out.
5. Use Your Keyword Ideas to Look for Articles: You can start by looking through a search engine
to see what you can find, but don't use articles that don't fit the type of authoritative sources
your instructor requires.
6. Use Links to Find Good Sources: One hint is to follow the links in articles that are written for a
non-specialist that go to the original sources and research articles. You can also use your
library resources to find more academic articles.
7. Follow my instructions in writing your essay: Easy Ways to Write a Thesis Sentence, Writing
Argument Essays, and, How to Write a Paper Without Making Common Mistakes.

Technology Topics
Here is a list of twenty starter topic ideas for research essays. See below for many more!

1. What are the long-term effects of living in a technological world? Are these mostly negative or
positive?
2. Are children under 12 now growing up in a different world than college-age students did? How
is it different, and what does that mean for them?
3. What is the most important new technology for solving world problems?
4. How has social media helped solve and create problems in countries outside the U.S.?
5. Will governments like China continue to be able to control citizens' access to the Internet and
social media?
6. How do social media, texting, cell phones, and the Internet make the world bigger? Smaller?
7. What are the implications of ever-increasing globalization through technology to the global
economy?
8. Technology is changing so quickly that we are frequently using computers, software programs,
and other technologies that have frustrating glitches and problems. Is there a solution?
9. How does our experience of social interactions with other humans influence the way we interact
with machines?
10. When does it become morally wrong to genetically engineer your child?
11. What are new ways people can use technology to change the world?
12. How is digital learning going to change schools and education?
13. Does the Internet need controls or censorship? If so, what kind?
14. Do digital tools make us more or less productive at work?
15. To what extent is the development of new technologies having a negative effect?
16. How will technology change our lives in twenty years?
17. Should people get identity chips implanted under their skin?
18. Should people in all countries have equal access to technological developments?
19. Can video gaming really help solve world problems? (see video)
20. How are brains different from computers? (see video)
21. Is organic food really better for you than genetically modified foods?
22. What are genetically modified food technologies able to do? How does this compare with
traditional plant breeding methods?
23. Should genetically modified food technologies be used to solve hunger issues?
24. Since it is now possible to sequence human genes to find out about possible future heath risks,
is that something everyone should have done? What are the advantages or disadvantages?
25. If people have genetic testing, who has the right to that information? Should healthcare
companies and employers have access to that information?
26. If parents have genetic information about their children, when and how should they share it with
the child?
27. What sort of genetic information should parents seek about their children and how might this
influence raising that child?
28. Would having cars that drive themselves be a good or bad idea?
29. How might travel in the future be different?
30. Should information technologies and Internet availability make work from home the norm?

How Will Computers Change in Five Years?

Reproduction Technologies
1. What is the best way for infertile couples to have a child?
2. Should research into mechanical reproduction technologies be unlimited?
3. What do we do about frozen embryos that won't be used by the donating couple?
4. Should "adopting" frozen embryos be encouraged more widely?
5. Is mechanical reproduction ethical?
6. Is there a difference between raising adopted and birth children?
 7. How can we best take care of the problem of unwanted pregnancies?
8. What makes a person a mother or a father?
9. What regulation should there be on the infertility technologies?
10. Should health insurance plans cover infertility technologies?
11. How far is "too far" in reproductive technologies?
12. Should we be trying to use cloning and surrogate parenting to bring back extinct species?
Your Gamete, Myself: An article about egg and sperm donation
1. How important is it to have a genetic connection with your children?
2. Do egg donors and children have rights to a relationship?
3. Should egg and sperm donors be compensated?
The Curious Lives of Surrogates: Discussing the reason why some women choose to be surrogate
mothers.
1. Is surrogate pregnancy a good way for a couple to get a baby?
2. Is it right that surrogacy is heavily advertised to military wives?
3. What should the children’s rights be in a case of surrogate pregnancy?
4. Should surrogates be used for any reason, or only for health reasons?
5. Is it ethical for a woman to carry someone else’s child?
6. Should there be regulations of international surrogacy?

Health Technologies
The Beating Heart Donors: Discussing organ transplant procedures.
1. What do we need to do in order to make organ donation a better experience for everyone
involved?
2. When is a person dead? How do we define death? Should there be changes in our definition of
“brain death"?
3. Should organ donors be given pain medications?
4. Should we choose organ donation for ourselves and our loved ones?
5. Do organ donors feel pain?
6. What is the best method of organ replacement to solve the problem of a shortage of donors?
How Pig Guts Became the Next Bright Hope for Regenerating Human Limbs
1. Will regenerating human limbs be a reality in our lifetime?
2. What is the best way to help people who have lost a limb?
3. Is it ethical to use tissue from animals in people?
4. Are using embryonic stem cells necessary, or will technological innovations make these
obsolete?
 5. Should more funding grants from the National Institute of Health (which tend to support
research projects without immediate practical applications) go to practical research projects
which produce direct medical help to individuals?
6. When considering war, should we factor in the medical costs of soldiers who will return
wounded?
The Bypass Cure: Tells of new evidence that Gastric Bypass surgery can cure diabetes.

1. What is the best way to help solve the problem of a rising number of people with Type 2
diabetes in the U.S.?
2. What is the best way to treat people with morbid obesity?
3. Should bypass surgeries be used as a standard cure for type 2 diabetes?
4. What is the cause of the recent increase in diabetes in the U.S.?
5. How much of diabetes type 2 and obesity is genetic? How much is behavioral?
6. Should people with obesity and diabetes or other diseases pay more for health care?

Surgery research topic: Should bypass surgery be used to cure diabetes? | Source

Genetic Engineering Technologies

Genetic Engineering of Humans Research Links

 Genetically Engineering Babies with Three Parents (two short articles explaining this)
 Reverse Eugenics: Choosing an Embryo With a Disability
  Help Wanted: Adventurous Woman to Give Birth to a Neanderthal Baby
 Human Genome Project fact sheets
1. Is human cloning a good or bad idea?
2. Should we ban human cloning?
3. What makes people human?
4. What is the role of religion/faith in making decisions about using reproductive technologies?
5. How does cloning change the value of human life?
6. How should we best solve the problem of genetic diseases?
7. Is there a point when genetic engineering has gone too far?
8. Who should decide the limits of how genetic engineering is used?
9. What is the best way to use the technologies of genetic engineering to help humans?
10. Which genetic engineering projects should be given the most funding?

Technologies and Human Identity

Medicine, Experiments, and Human Identity
1. Should human life be deemed more important than animal life?
2. What is the dignity of human life and how should we observe this in medical situations?
3. Who decides how far medical research should go?
4. Should there be limits to the scientific investigation on humans?
DNA Test Gives Students Shock(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/nyregion/dna-tells-students-
they-arent-who-they-thought.html?_r=0)

1. What should determine our racial identity? Is is our DNA, our appearance, our choice, our
family or our cultural environment?
2. How important is DNA information in forming our identity?
3. Should people get Ancestry DNA testing?
4. Should identifying as multi-racial be more common?
Ways to Leave Your Body: Tells about out-of-body technologies like virtual reality as well as other
ways to be outside yourself.

1. What is the self? Can it be found in scientific investigation?

2. Does science have the final say about who we are? Will technology create an Inception effect
where people will not be able to distinguish out-of-body from in-body experiences?
3. How will virtual reality technology change us?
4. Is virtual reality the future?
5. Should there be a limit to the research on virtual reality?
6. What are the uses and benefits of virtual reality technologies?
The Switched On Brain: Describes studies that are using light waves in the brain to cure psychiatric
diseases.
 1. Is controlling brains with technology like light ethical?
2. How important is it to find alternative treatments (something other than drugs) for mental
illness?
3. What is the best way to treat mental illness?
4. Has an increase in the use of technology affected the rise of mental illness in the U.S.?
5. If it were possible, should technologies be used to control drug addictions?
6. Should we seek ways to control the brain with technologies?
7. What are the social dangers of brain-controlling technologies?

Source

Technology and Relationships

Is "Phubbing" Ruining Your social Relationships? by James Roberts

1. Has social media changed our relationships in a good or bad way?

2. How important is it to monitor and limit our social media intake?
3. Is addiction to technology something we should worry about?
4. Are the distractions of using social media negatively influencing the workplace?
5. Has media hurt or helped family communication? Friendship communication? Romantic
relationships?
6. What is the best way to manage technology in relationships?
7. What is the best way to maintain a close relationship?
When Texting is Wrong, by Randy Cohen in the New York Times.
1. Is using technology in college classrooms a good or bad idea?
 2. What is the best way for educators to incorporate social media in their classrooms?
3. What is the best way for educators to use technology to teach?
4. Should there be social rules about cell phone use in schools or the workplace?
5. How are technologies changing the way people interact in the workplace?
6. Have texting and social media damaged this generation's ability to communicate in person?
7. Do cell phones and social media make family relationships stronger?
8. How has texting changed the way we communicate with one another?
9. What are the dangers of texting?
10. When is texting rude? Has texting made this generation less respectful of other people? Who
decides?
They Loved Your G.P.A. and Then They Saw Your Tweets by Natasha Singer in the New York
Times
1. How should people manage their social networking profiles? How important is this?
2. Should there be limits to the access a university or employer has to social profiles?
3. Should teachers have limits on social networking with students?
4. How should professionals use Facebook or other social media?
5. Should there be more regulations on social media privacy?
6. How large a role should social profiles have in hiring and other decisions?
7. How justifiable is it to take legal action against someone for posts on social media sites?

Are nuclear bombs still needed for modern war? | Source

War Technology
Living with the Bomb: The Atomic Bomb in Japanese Consciousness by Mark Selden
Living with the Bomb in National Geographic

1. How has drone warfare changed the way we think about war?
2. Does increasing military technology really make us safer?
3. Do more guns make people more or less safe?
4. How much money should the U.S. devote to military research for better weapons?
5. What would happen if someone detonated a nuclear bomb today?
6. How should the U.S. and other nations deal with Iran and North Korea and their development of
nuclear weapons technology?
7. Should we destroy our nuclear weapons?
8. How has modern warfare technology changed the way we view war?
9. Has technology made the world safer or less safe?
10. Should drones be used in modern warfare?
11. What is the effect of taking people out of direct combat with the enemy?
12. Will nanobot drones be the future of warfare?

Information Communication Technologies (ITC)

Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr in the Atlantic Monthly
1. Is technology changing the way we read?
2. Does an online format cause readers to skim rather than fully digest information?
3. Is being able to find information quickly online a good or bad thing?
4. How do we gauge intelligence?
5. How is Google search changing us?
6. How should we change teaching to incorporate new technologies?
7. How important is it that schools teach using iPads, Smart Boards, social media, and other new
technologies?
8. Is there an intelligence developed through conventional reading and research which is being
lost in the digital age?
9. If Google prefers their own brand of information, are we getting the best when we search?
Does the Internet Make You Smarter? by Clay Shirky in the Wall Street Journal

1. Should there be regulation of sites such as Wikipedia which provide information that is not
necessarily credible?
2. Are blogs better than books?
3. How necessary is teaching traditional researching skills to today’s young people?
4. Do schools and parents need to encourage or discourage media use?
5. How is reading digitally different than reading print?
6. Is the digital generation going to be smarter or dumber?
7. Is Google affecting the attention span of young people?
 8. Is using technology for entertainment a bad thing?
Information Storage (see videos)
1. How can storing information on DNA create new information system technologies?
2. Are there any ethical objections to using DNA for storage?
3. Is unlimited data storage a good thing? How can humans manage these large amounts of
information?
4. Should we worry about the fact that the line between the human brain and a computer is getting
blurred? Is it a problem that computers will soon be able to think?
5. Should we build robots to do many of the tasks people don't like to do? How relevant is
the Wall-E scenario to our future?

Computer Science and Robotics

How Google is Remaking Itself Into a "Machine Learning First" Company (Wired)
Google Says Machine Learning is the Future, so I Tried It Myself (The Guardian)
1. Where is the hardware and software borderline in cloud computing?
2. What will be the consequences of everything moving into the cloud?
3. Can reinforcement learning teach robots to be more intelligent and more like humans?
4. Since open-source is becoming more of a trend in computer science, how can computer
programmers be able to protect a device?
5. How will big data and bioinformatics change biology?
6. What is machine learning? How important is it?
7. Where will machine learning have the most impact?
8. How will virtualization change entertainment?
9. How will virtual reality change education?
10. Is virtual reality a good or bad thing?
11. What is the next level for the Internet? How can the Internet be changed to make it better?
12. If computers take over many of our tasks, what will humans do?
13. Which computer languages are going to be most important in the future?
14. If there is a new computer language to be invented, what does it need to do to be better than
the languages we now have?
15. How are robots changing health care?

Five Kinds of Arguable Claims

 Arguable
Claim Exploratory
Claim Con Global
Explanation Examples: Essay
Type Warming
Pro Global Topics
Warming
Global
warming is
real and can Global Is global
Fact What is it? be warming is a warming
documented myth. real?
with scientific
evidence.
Global
Even if true,
warming is a
global How would
serious and
What does it warming is global
Definition immediate
mean? not an warming
threat to
immediate affect us?
human and
threat.
animal life.
Natural
processes
Global on Earth and What causes
What caused warming is solar flares temperature
Cause
it? caused by cause fluctuations
man. temperature on earth?
fluctuations
on earth.
Global
economic
Global stability is
How
What is warming is more
important is
Value important an important important
global
and why? problem than
warming?
now. worrying
about global
warming.
The Kyoto How should
The Kyoto
What should agreements the world
Protocol
we do about would respond to
Policy needs to be
it? Who threaten the data
adopted by
should do it? world suggesting
all nations.
economies. global
 Arguable
Claim Exploratory
Claim Con Global
Explanation Examples: Essay
Type Warming
Pro Global Topics
Warming
warming is
happening?
These technology research topics represent arguable claims or ideas people don't agree on. Arguable claims make
good research topics because there are several points of view that you can investigate.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Ask

 Question:
Is modern technology helping humans be more efficient or lazier?
Answer:
Technology or social media topics are something that everyone wants to investigate
because so many of us are worried about our own use of phone and social media. You will
find a lot of research articles that will help you write this paper. Because so many of my
students have done this sort of topic, I will give you a hint: the more specific you are in
talking about the type of technology or behavior you are going to argue about, the better.
Helpful 90
 Question:
I am tasked with writing a research article on Information technology. Do you have
any suggestions?
Answer:
Many of the topics in this article involve using information technology. To find a good topic,
I'd suggest you start with the section which is labeled "Information and communication
tech," but if you don't find anything there, you should look through the other sections for a
topic which involves computers.
Helpful 61
 Question:
Can you suggest a topic about computers and defense for a research paper?
Answer:
1. What is the role of computers in air defense?
2. What is the most important use of drones in warfare currently?
3. Does computer control of our defense systems make us more vulnerable?
4. How does the military prevent hacking attempts on their computer systems?
Helpful 47
 Question:
 What do you think of, "How does incorporating information technologies in the
classroom affect students?" as a research paper topic?
Answer:
Here are some other topic ideas:
1. Do students learn better when information technologies are incorporated in the
classroom?
2. Is there a "best age" for introducing information technologies in the classroom?
3. How can information technologies be best used by teachers to enhance learning?
Helpful 22
 Question:
How is digital learning going to change schools and education?