Face That Has Seen An iPhone

Submission 354

Part of a series on Catchphrases. [View Related Entries]

About

iPhone Face, also known as Face That Has Seen An iPhone, is a slang term and cultural cliché used to describe facial features that are seen as more modern than others, possibly due to cosmetic augmentation. Features like fuller "done" lips, whitened teeth and sleek hair, are seen as out of place in films or television shows set in different time periods, with the resulting contrast giving rise to the notion of the "iPhone Face." The concept gained prominence online in early 2023, with notable examples being Dakota Johnson in the film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and the cast of Daisy Jones & the Six.

Origin

The earliest known viral instance of someone describing someone as having a face that "knows" about modern technology is an August 12th, 2018, post by Twitter^[1] / X user @BrandyLJensen. The tweet read, "some people just can’t be believably cast in a period piece like sorry Jessica Biel you have a face that knows about text messaging," and gathered over 35,000 likes in six years (seen below, left).

Spread

On October 15th, 2021, Tumblr^[2] user @powerbottombrucespringsteen made a post that read, "Ben Affleck is one of those people who just cannot work period dramas at all. He has a face that knows about emails," gathering over 69,000 notes in three years (seen below).

A June 4th, 2022, post to the subreddit /r/PeriodDramas^[3] by Redditor /u/Hoesinthishouse404 discussed the idea of a "microwave test," wherein actors possess modern-looking faces that would know what a microwave is. The post gathered over 200 upvotes in two years.

A May 20th post on Twitter^[4] / X saw user @meakoopa describing Elon Musk as having the opposite of a face that knows what a cellphone is, saying that he has "the most 18th century face I've ever seen just ripe for a powdered wig soiling himself in a stagecoach robbery for his diamonds ass face." The post gathered over 2,000 likes in two years (seen below).

Discussions about "iPhone Face" continued on Reddit in 2023, with a /r/popculturechat^[5]^[6] post from April 22nd, 2023, and another from June 6th, gathering over 1,000 and 2,000 upvotes, respectively, in a year. These discussions revolved around Dakota Johnson's casting in a period film, and the casting for a Daisy and the Six show set in the 1960s.