iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro are here and while they are generating a lot of buzz around the world, there has been an unintended consequence of Apple’s new camera design. Several online reports as well as social media posts note that people with trypophobia, a fear of clustered patterns of irregular holes or bumps, are finding Apple’s new triple camera design in the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max “triggering”.
According to WebMD, the “people with trypophobia have an intense physical and emotional reaction whenever they see patterns made up of holes. The bigger the cluster of circles, the more uncomfortable trypophobes feel.”
The website also writes that American Psychiatric Association (APA) doesn’t recognise trypophobia as a true phobia as of now and even some experts says that it “more likely disgust than fear.” Whatever the expert diagnosis on trypophobia, a company like Apple that sells millions of iPhone units every year would certainly not want a section of population to get disgusted by the new iPhone models or fear them. According to a research, trypophobia is present in 16 percent of people and that is a massive number.
“[I] can’t really face small, irregularly or asymmetrically placed holes, they make me like, throw up in my mouth, cry a little bit, and shake all over, deeply,” one trypophobe involved in the research said.
For trypophobes, a sight like the one on the back of iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max can reportedly cause nausea, shaking, shortness of breath, fast heartbeat, sweating, or itching.
“I’ve been nauseous all afternoon. It started when I was scrolling through Twitter and saw the first glimpses of the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max and their triple-camera horror show,” Gizmodo’s Jennings Brown wrote in a first-person account.
Several Twitter users are posting similar views with many of them saying that they won’t buy the new iPhone because of trypophobia.
“the 3 lens iPhone is giving me trypophobia,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Those new camera’s trigger my trypophobia and it’s no joke,” wrote another person.
“so I can cross getting the new iPhone off my list… little trypophobia things,” tweeted one more Twitter user.
so I can cross getting the new iPhone off my list… little trypophobia things
— hayley 🦁 (@delucamer_) September 10, 2019
Apple is yet to officially say anything on the matter.