"Beat & Release": Better Late Than Never, But Better Late For Real - Trolls Play Disappointed Test Candidates on Social Media

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 26 June 2025)

               Forgot to get batteries for alarm clock.

The effort to make a splash on social media and garner "likes"

has affected the test-taking arena, such that fake test 

candidates are making videos of  themselves being turned away

for reaching the test site too late. (!)

These social media trolls exploit the annual scenes at test-taking

sites, where real candidates are excluded for being a minute late.

Görkem Varlık has played the role of a disappointed candidate

in recent years on his social media postings but he claims that 

his noble intention is to send a message to the unyielding 

test-givers:

"This amount of stress is unnecessary.  I'm not looking for 'likes'

and attention (!) because I only target the university tests, not

all the others.  By my actions, I've made people aware that not

all those  turned away are real heartbroken candidates and that

most of them are in fact trolls looking for attention.  The real

test-takers hope to earn money with their degrees in the future,

whereas the fake candidates are just looking to make a quick

buck on social media."

Görkem bey holds forth about his sacred quest:

"It's not about me!"