The Geniuses at Apple certainly anticipated complaints about the way iOS 7 looks and how it works, but they probably never anticipated this: some iPhone and iPad users are getting motion sickness and vertigo from the new operating system.
The complaints are coming in from several Apple product forums, including the company’s official support thread. iOS 7 zooms in and out when users switch between applications and those animations may be too much for some. “The zoom animations everywhere on the new iOS 7 are literally making me nauseous and giving me a headache. It’s exactly how I used to get car sick if I tried to read in the car,” writes one user.
Why? When signals coming into the brain and the central nervous system don’t match up, such as when you’re on a ship being tossed around by waves but you don’t see the change in motion because you’re focused on stable objects that aren’t moving, you can get dizzy and nauseous. “Your brain receives messages that do not match with each other. This leads to mixed messages to the brain related to your sensation of orientation and rotational axis, and you could suffer a sense of nausea, dizziness, sense of spinning or headaches,” Dr. Robert Glatter said to Forbes.
That’s exactly what’s happening to some iPhone but in reverse — they are physically stable but their eyes sense movement in the animations that doesn’t correspond to what their bodies are feeling.
Thankfully, you don’t have to regret saying yes to the upgrade. You can make your phone less jittery by going to “Settings,” then “General” and then “Accessibility.” Click on “Reduce Motion” to turn it on. This should cut back on some of the movements that are can trigger nausea and dizziness.