"If you want to New Pazar, the daily wage is 100 euros, bread, drink and blejica", reads the message that appeared on social networks before the protest in Novi Pazar. It has been shared by accounts close to the regime for days, and the correspondence also appeared on the official account "students who want to study".
"Cool, how many of us can go?" replies the anonymous student, seemingly accepting the offer to be paid to come to the protest.
"You can do as much as you want. Just let me know about the list, he will give the kintu to Deka before leaving," he writes in the continuation of the correspondence. After a few more exchanged messages, the conversation is concluded with: "Check if anyone else wants to and let me know. Let the clowns joke around Begish." All this with at least one emoticon in every message.
So, here is irrefutable proof, in black and white - students are paid! If you are a regular tabloid reader, you must have seen these and similar messages in the past few months, which appear on the front pages of the portal at least once a week.
However, in the era of social networks, it is very easy to fake correspondence. Can it be proven that the alleged student messages that the authorities have been tirelessly publishing for months are authentic?
"I heard 'Begish' only from pensioners"
When such messages are shared, they are generally anonymous. If they are not anonymous, they are signed with generic names, without surnames, any personal details or photos. Thus, some Marko, Petar, Ogi usually call for payment...
"It seems that the government is trying to imitate that kind of conversation with emoticons, correctly spelled sentences and slangs that they think young people use," Miloš (22), a student at the University of Belgrade, told Vreme.
"For example, the word 'Begis' mentioned in one of the conversations was the first and only time I heard it from a pensioner over 70 years old," adds this student.
Indeed, rather than such correspondences giving the impression of authenticity, it seems to be the opposite. The whole situation seems more like a "mime" that became popular ten years ago, and is still used today, when the middle-aged Steve Buscemi in the series "30 Rock" puts a cap on his head, takes a skateboard in his hands and pretends to be a teenager.
"Who will tell them that we hardly use emojis, not to mention words like 'klopa', 'blejica', 'cool', 'kinta', 'fax'...", adds student Aleksandra (22).
Weak effect on networks
Although the messages, apart from tabloids, also appear on social networks, it seems that they do not achieve the desired effect.
"My mother has more modern slang than this. And she is 79 years old. This is the third set-up conversation from which it can be seen that you are definitely not good at learning through trial and error," reacted one of the users of the X social network.
Other reactions are similar. "You could find someone under the age of 50 to correspond with himself, then take a picture and post it. It would seem more believable." "Saška, Srki, Sofi, Deki and blejica in Begiš. You wrote this in 1994, but they just connected you to the Internet?", are just some of the reactions of users on the networks.
Citizens reacted similarly when "Informer" allegedly obtained correspondence from students of the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad in February, in which a certain Novak uses the term "double appanage for tomorrow".
In a month and a half, the regime's tabloids managed to go from "double appanage" to "love and blejica", but they still miss the most important thing - how young people actually talk. And maybe they just need a younger consultant.
