For most people, the Tiktok world is seen as nothing but pure novelty. But for South Australian content creators, Jaxon Samwell (17) and Tommy Eyers (23), Tiktok goes beyond novelty — it’s a new medium of creative, engaging, and out-of-the-box entertainment.
Hey Paolo: What inspired you to start your Tiktok pages?
Jaxon: Six months ago, I was still a very quiet person and I didn’t really interact with people unless I know them. But after doing two-three Tiktok interviews with random strangers, I thought it was heaps fun especially filming their real reactions and showcasing them on Tiktok.
Tommy: I just want to make people laugh. I didn’t really know anything about Tiktok back then, and I was trying to make videos (uploaded on Facebook & Youtube) to make as many people laugh as possible. Now, you put them on Tiktok and you can suddenly make a million people laugh.
Hey Paolo: What kind of content do you produce?
Jaxon: To make people laugh. I get surprise messages and they’ll say something like: “I was having a bad day and your content made me laugh.” Stuff like that keeps me going. What I do has also inspired other people to pick up their camera and film their own stuff.
Tommy: I used to do what Jaxon was doing like asking people questions and getting their reactions. But three months ago, I started dressing up in a school boy outfit and now all of my videos are of this character. I basically go around in a 10-year-old school kid’s outfit and I ask people to film me dancing and doing random stuff.
Hey Paolo: How do you explain Tiktok to the older generation?
Jaxon: If I had to explain Tiktok to my grandparents (which I actually had to do), I’ll say that it’s just like any other social media platform. Strangers can go viral. You can be nobody and become Tiktok-famous instantly.
Tommy: For anyone over the age of forty, they’ll be like, ugh, Tiktok’s going to steal your data. Tiktok is actually a good platform for those who wish to go viral.
Hey Paolo: What keeps you creating?
Tommy: Knowing that people are “wetting their pants” watching my content while laughing is good to know.
Jaxon: I get mostly positive comments on my videos and I love reading them and replying to them. And then there’s all meeting random people who recognise us. It’s such a weird thing because everything happened so quickly.
