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In their first few days of move-in, freshmen Maeve Lewis and Caroline Colby filmed a TikTok about living with someone they met on Instagram. The backdrop: their split double Sadler Hall dorm.

What they didn’t know was it would accumulate 160,000 likes.

“We just did it for our friends from home to keep up with us,” Colby said. “I thought maybe we’d have one viral video. I didn’t know that the entire campus was gonna see.”

Lewis and Colby created their joint account called @maeveandcaroline, which now has accumulated 580,000 likes a month later. The pair are freshmen at Syracuse University, with Lewis studying nutrition and Colby studying marketing management. They have multiple popular videos, with one even reaching 1.2 million views. The two met over Instagram before the school year started and decided to be roommates.

Lewis and Colby now view the page as a fun pastime. They post videos when they come across a trend or have a fun idea. The relatable content they post is meant to be a silly way for them to bond — they don’t take themselves too seriously.

“We just come up with an idea, make it for fun, then occasionally it gets a million views,” Lewis said. “We tried to do a couple dancing ones, but then they got, like, 10 likes. People don’t want to see that.”

Lewis and Colby have experienced countless interactions where fellow students recognize them from their videos, which is an oddly funny situation, Lewis said.

“Every fourth person will be like, ‘I’ve seen you on TikTok,’” Lewis said. “One of the girls, she pulled up her DMs with her roommate, and there were like, five videos of my face.”

Moving into a dorm hall with strangers can be a daunting experience, but Lewis and Colby were each other’s first friends on campus. Colby said she was nervous coming to SU as it was a big change from home. But getting to know Lewis over the summer and bonding at school with the creation of the account helped make the start of college fun.

Colby said SU was her first choice when deciding between schools, as her mom is an alum. Lewis said she didn’t necessarily have a first-choice school, but when visiting the campus, the student culture at SU stuck out to her.

“I remember when I was touring with my mom during Welcome Week last year, a group of girls thought I was a freshman, and they waved to me and asked me to hang out with them,” Lewis said. “So I thought, ‘This is definitely a good community.’”

Many of their videos feature their Sadler dorm antics and interactions with their neighbors. Lewis said the friend group they’ve built on their floor has a good dynamic; they often watch movies together or go on excursions, like ice skating or a trip to Green Lakes State Park.

The roommate duo has started to pick up on what works for TikTok’s algorithm and what doesn’t. They utilize #Syracuse to target their videos to the SU community. Alicia Hoppes | Staff Photographer

Right across the hall, Calvin Wood and Rudransh Rajput run a playful rival account on Instagram reels, @twoguys_oneaccount, creating similar content. Lewis and Colby have featured Rajput in some of their videos, including one where they posed in front of fellow dorm residents’ doors, prompting others to join in.

“It’s a really good way to meet new people, because people come up to me and they say, ‘I’ve seen your Reels,’ and automatically they know that I’m a funny guy,” Rajput said.

Rajput and Wood are committed to fueling their creativity through the Reels account while also promoting friendly competition. Their floor on Sadler has seen quite a few residents go viral on social media, and they want to keep pushing out funny content.

“Now, we go out, and we’ll be like, ‘We haven’t filmed a Reel yet today,’” Wood said. “It’ll be like two in the morning, ‘We gotta go film a Reel.’”

Wood is a film major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and Rajput studies computer science. The two said their account, beyond being a fun activity, has relevance in their studies. Wood enjoys filming and editing the content, and Rajput is interested in the algorithm behind viral social media posts.

For Colby, she hopes to one day create social media content in a more behind-the-scenes role. She’s noticed what type of videos tend to get more traction than others by posting regularly. Any videos with #Syracuse blow up, because TikTok’s algorithm knows they’re in the city and pushes them to others in the area, she said.

Creating fun college-focused content, whether it be relatable or strictly comical, is a good way to express your personality, Rajput said. Colby said it’s made the campus feel smaller, creating more opportunities to meet people and connect.

“It’s definitely a conversation starter because it leads to a whole conversation on how we made (the account),” Colby said. “It definitely creates a stronger community, having people recognize you.”

Published on September 15, 2025 at 9:58 pm