On Wednesday, June 19th, 2013, the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada will be taking over Twitter handles to simulate how a person would act if they had Tourette Syndrome.
"Wednesday from 9 o’clock on tweets will come out from your twitter handle with the equivalent of verbal tics. You won’t know when they’re coming and you won’t know what they are saying and that’s to mimic the way that real verbal tics happen,” said Cathy Wylie, president of the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada. The automated tweets will come out with a link to surrenderyoursay.com so followers can find out more."
More on the event and how I'll be participating in it, after the break!
Being a Psychology Major, I find this to be a very important event, and will be participating for the 24-hour bot-tweet period.
WHAT IS TOURETTE SYNDROME?:
Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disorder that is identified with involuntary vocal and physical behaviour, known as "tics". They can come on at any time, and the patient has absolutely no control over their actions.
However, it is treatable. With therapy, time and support, the patient will be able to experience either diminished tics, or tics that are altogether gone. But, a patient can't get therapy unless they can identify the syndrome first.
That's the intention of this event: to raise awareness of Tourette Syndrome, so that we can de-stigmatize the disorder. Twitter users who volunteer to have a bot run on their Twitter accounts for 24 hours (June 19th, 9am ~ June 20th, 9am) will be having these spontaneous "tics" run through their feed.
For examples of what those tics may look like, what the details of Tourette Syndrome looks like, as well as to participate in the event yourself (which I highly encourage you all to do, whether you're in Canada or not), please check out http://www.surrenderyoursay.com and help raise awareness about Tourette Syndrome.
I apologize in advance for any inappropriate or crude tweets that may be generated by this bot.
For more information on the event, please check out the Metro article here:
http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/708574/what-is-it-like-to-have-tourette-syndrome-surrender-your-twitter-handle-for-a-day-and-find-out/
Thanks, guys! <3
~AELITA
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