This started with a tumblr post about how Mermaids and touchscreens don't mix and evolved into an actual essay, into a postable fic.
Summary: "Mermaids with electrokinesis have a hard time with touchscreens due to the screen working by way of electrical circuits. In this essay I will…" This is that essay
Cam hovered his fingers above the keyboard, then started to type.
It's happened to everyone at one point or another. Using your phone or a tablet or any other touchscreen device and you press on the screen, maybe trying to type out a text message and the screen registers the touch as a different part of the screen. You end up with a 'd' instead of an 'f' or maybe it decides to activate drag typing, despite you not dragging your finger across the keys. It's especially hard for those with bigger fingers, those little screens just aren't adequately designed unless you have matchstick fingers. That's without going into the criminally small space bars that insist on being present.
While it cannot be disputed, this universally irritating first world problem is a big deal, there are a small number of the land dwelling population that suffer ever worse issues with using any sort of touch screen technology - the Mermaids.
Only a minority of these Mermaids will ever run afoul of this issue, due to the majority spending their entire lives in the sea away from the clutches of technology, but those who do report it is on a scale of difficulty up there with learning to walk for the first time.
For those with minimal to no existing knowledge of Mermaids - they have powers. These powers can range dramatically from Mermaid to Mermaid. The most commonplace powers being water manipulation, or hydrokinesis; heating water, hydro-thermokinesis; and hydro-cryokinesis, with the latter having its own separate variant. Invisibility is seen amongst the natural born members of the species but is absent from humans who have been turned into Mermaids. Alongside invisibility many Mermaids have weather manipulating abilities, be it making it snow or conjuring an entire storm - which leads onto the power of electrokinesis.
Electrokinesis, or electricity manipulation is simply defined as "the ability to manipulate electricity" (Electricity Manipulation, 2021.) This ability covers creating, manipulating and controlling electricity. As electricity isn't quite designed for sea living just yet, Mermaids with this ability can use it to create lightning. The word 'can' is used in this instance as many Mermaids who possess this ability are never taught to cultivate their lightning creating skills due to the dangerous nature of this ability. The small minority who both possess this power and spent enough time to land to need access to touchscreens have reported difficulty in using the touchscreens.
There are two types of touchscreen - capacitive and resistive (How Do Touch Screens Work on Laptops and Tablets?, 2021) - the type being referred to for the purpose of this essay are capacitive touchscreens. Resistive screens involve the use of resistive metal and plastic of glass. When the top layer, either glass or plastic, is pressed it comes into contact with the metal layer triggered the response from the electric circuits (How Do Touch Screens Work on Laptops and Tablets?, 2021.) Due to this, resistive type screens pose no problem for those land wandering Mermaids.
Meanwhile capacitive touchscreens are the ones that get the best of us all, in particular the Mermaids. Capacitive screens work through electric circuits. The circuits are incomplete and rendered moot until the circuit is complete by the electrical charge held in the human touch i.e touching the screen in a certain location (McCann, 2021.) Mermaids with electrokinesis are presumed to have a naturally higher electrical charge, causing the screen's technology to confuse the touch with simply just the charge from the power naturally held in the Mermaid.
It's something we've all surely thought about - having superpowers - but have any of us truly thought about these superpowers can affect general, everyday life, right down to using a phone. I, myself, never took this into consideration until I once watched a Mermaid struggle to use a touchscreen phone.
Touchscreens work through the contact completing a circuit and activitting that part of the screen. Or if you were a Mermaid, wherever you pressed would cause around five other parts of the screen to also be activated making typing a very, very lengthy task.
Sources
McCann, A., 2018. Okay, But How Do Touch Screens Actually Work? | Scienceline. [online] Scienceline. Available at: /2012/01/okay-but-how-do-touch-screens-actually-work/
.com. 2018. How Do Touch Screens Work On Laptops And Tablets?. [online] Available at: us/en/tech-takes/how-do-touch-screens-work
Superpower Wiki. 2018. Electricity Manipulation. [online] Available at: wiki/Electricity_Manipulation
Cam grinned and clicked the little save icon, wouldn't do to lose this. He was in enough trouble as it was already for 'accidentally' short circuiting a computer. Mr Paul had banished him from the classroom and to the Principal's office where he'd sat for about twenty minutes waiting until that marine park doctor guy came out and he was finally permitted to enter where he nabbed the most comfortable seat opposite Santos' desk.
Contrary to popular belief he was a decent student. He passed everything, sometimes just, but a pass is a pass and he never caused too much trouble, or enough that he got sent out of class, and especially not sent to the Principal's office. Yet somehow he'd been here twice in the same semester. The first time was the 'Annie Incident' back in first aid.
Mr Paul joined them with his punishment for Cam, detention and he had to write an essay on an aspect of technology. Why he had to be in Santos' office for this, he didn't know. Santos didn't seem to either. She just looked annoyed. It wasn't until Mr Paul suggested Cam hand his essay into Principal Santos it twigged why he was here. The man just didn't want to mark anything. Lazy bastard.
The lightbulb had flickered for a few seconds after that and stopped once Mr Paul left.
"Go to your class Cam," Santos dismissed him and directed her attention back to whatever forms were on his desk before he'd even gotten up out his seat.
"Did you do that?" Cam asked. "With the lights?"
He'd seen flickering lights with Mermaids before, with one Mermaid in particular. The one sitting opposite him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Cam nodded slowly, not believing her in the slightest, but his mind wheels were turning. If Santos was going to be dealing with his essay, why not make it Mermaids and technology? Maybe she'd even get a kick out of it. Probably not but it was worth a try.
His essay was returned to him that same afternoon he handed it in. It was the last class of the day, Spanish, and was also their last lesson with Santos as their teacher. A new teacher was joining the school and would take over, a Spanish guy called Fernando Fernandez, who would undoubtedly have the piss taken out of him for a bit by some of the rowdier classmates.
Cam scanned over the feedback, actual feedback, written on the page.
A little on the short side, more research into the workings of touchscreen technology would have been beneficial, as would more detail into the affects the increased electrical charges have.
Introduction needs to be more related to the topic, it is there to introduce what you are talking about, but was an otherwise well written intro.
The comedic tone works well with the topic.
The conclusion feels almost disjointed but is a good attempt.
More references! You should be looking at five minimum for a piece of this length.
Overall a well done piece but below the standard expected of your level.
(Next time save it for creative writing. Not an essay of this nature.)
Cam shrugged and stuffed into the blackhole that was his schoolbag, never to be seen again. He wasn't joking either, things went missing in that bag. Homework. Pens. Pencils. Essays. You name it, his bag ate it. And he really couldn't care less.
Fun fact - I did have a teacher called Fernando Fernandez. It wasn't his full name but that's what we knew him as. He was Spanish and had a doctorate in chemistry.
The 'Annie Incident' refers to the earlier chapter 'Annie Are You Okay' in which Cam is once again a little shit.