the feared dictionary from iFear

If you have clinophobia, this is the iPhone app for you! Hippocampo, Qabiria and SavoirIT have created iFear, a comprehensive dictionary of fears, which surprisingly is not scary (unless you have technophobia). If you are a psychological hypochondriac then read on for hours of  masochistic self-analysing “fun”, if not then the app offers an extensive list and study guide to the most fears ranging from the mundane to the ridiculous.

Katagelophobia – the fear of being ridiculed.

iFear is an iPhone app that gives you options. The search feature is well thought out, allowing search of phobias, fear of… and tags. So if I have a fear of chickens – don’t judge, you don’t know what those flightless eggsitters can do – I can type “chicken” and the predictive search brings up all related results immediately. Why the urgency? Fear triggers adrenaline which means it’s time for a speedy delivery to bring you to understand why you want a fight or flight.  The developers could also have recognized the pragmatism of the predictive search.

Here’s the sick part. If I click on alektorophobia (the fear of chickens), the next screen lists the tags, additional names, notes and an image of the fear. Really? I’m deathly afraid of this pecking monster and you show me its cardiac-arresting deepfried thigh. I think I’m going to be sick. On the bright side, I am a little more knowledgable.

Epistemophobia: the fear of knowledge.

chickens - Aaak!

The second tab on the bottom of the screen is the about section. An interesting choice as I normally consider it the signature as the last option. This is purely self promotional of them. The remaining tabs are Quiz and Facts.

The quiz is randomly generated, which made me originally feel like a genius. I got ten questions right before I struck out. This is just multiple choice questions pertaining to the variety of amazing fears within iFear’s intangible pages. Questions such as “Is fear of death called Acousticophia?” give a simple yes or no option (the answer is No, but you could probably figure that out for yourself). My initial attempt gave me the same few fears again and again, making me choose which one is a social fear… Anthroomorphia, Theatrophobia, Ablutophobia? If you get three wrong the quiz is over.

The facts section should be the intro to the app for me. Yes, this is arbitrary ordering, so it won’t affect my score of the app. I would have liked to learn about the definition of the phobia, the ranges of phobias within an individual and the fact that “few of the terms in iFear’s dictionary are acually found in medical literature” (yes the typo was there too). This made me wonder: Who is this app for?

Originally I thought this may be a good study tool for a psychology student, but that statement threw me off. I think that this is a dictionary for the generally interested individual. This app allows you to delve into humanity and assume the frightened face of a kakorrhaphiophobe, or a levophobe. Despite the remaining mystery why someone would keep coming back to this app (I won’t judge, maybe there’s a fear of not knowing all the fears), it is well executed and served its purpose of informing me.

Now if only I can find an app to help rid me of my fears.