‘Surrender Your Say' Campaign Turns Tweets Into Tics: How Twitter Developed Tourette Syndrome Symptoms For 24 Hours [PHOTOS]
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Our virtual lives are under the complete control of our real decisions, right? Well, thousands of people on Twitter surrendered that control Wednesday as they let verbal tics invade their personal feed.
The Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada (TSFC) made public their "Surrender Your Say" campaign from Wednesday into Thursday — a project designed to give people a taste of what life is like with Tourette syndrome (TS). For 24 hours, people had their Twitter profiles at the mercy of the Foundation, which would randomly post nonsensical phrases, profanity, or otherwise arbitrary sounds on people's personal feed.
"Kitchen sink, kitchen sink," wrote @causemark Wednesday evening.
"I have a biscuit falling through my hair tonight," @courtneymbee posted several hours later.
Each tweet bore the hashtag #SurrenderYourSay and a link to the campaign's website. Nearly 9,000 people donated their feeds to Thursday's project, accumulating 213,720 total hours of "surrendered" tweeting.
The campaign began by asking members of the Twitterverse to offer their handles in "surrender" to their tweets. During the 24-hour period, people with Tourette syndrome also sent in tweets of their real-life verbal tics. These tics ranged from random sentences to basic noises, like "ins ins ins," CNN reports.
TSFC art director Rachel Kennedy said the organization wanted to make a meaningful impact on a large population all at once.
"We were trying to think of a way to get people to experience Tourette syndrome," she said. "Twitter is sort of like your online voice... you're judged on the things you are saying."
Ironically, people with Tourette syndrome are judged for what they don't say, as only 10 percent of people with TS have a verbal tic that includes profanity, according to Cathy Wylie, president of the TSFC, and whose son has Tourette's.
Tics can also be physical, such as a spastic arm movement or apparent kink in the neck.
"People looked at him like, 'You should behave — why are you doing that?'" Wylie recalls of her son. "That's difficult when that's something you have no control over."
Tourette syndrome can sometimes make for difficult social situations, such as when a person's verbal tics disrupt his teacher in the classroom, or when the person works in an office setting where communication is paramount. The exact number of people with Tourette's is unknown, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that males are three times more likely to have the syndrome than females, and that white children are diagnosed more often than black or Hispanic children.
The CDC also reports that 64 percent of children with Tourette syndrome have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a concurrent condition. Forty percent have anxiety problems and 36 percent suffer from depression.
Meanwhile, Wylie argues that Tourette syndrome only differentiates people depending on the severity of their tics.
"The people who have Tourette are really the same as the rest of us, with just these tics added in," Wylie said. "It doesn't affect anything else in their life."
Biscuit, back it, rabbit, flap it #SurrenderYourSay http://t.co/wn4B1CRHe9
— Colly (@IIIBreadIII) June 21, 2013
Sniff, sniff, sniff #SurrenderYourSay http://t.co/aau06Q1dJ4
— Nobody's Hero (@bvb69_batman) June 21, 2013
I'm 14 babies #SurrenderYourSay http://t.co/jiRdwDPjNM
— Sheri Landry (@ThisBirdsDay) June 21, 2013