An Aberdeen videographer took an unexpected trip down memory lane while scrolling TikTok – discovering a clip from a childhood trip to Disney World.
Glen Cairns was casually scrolling through the social media platform when he came across a promotional video for theme park.
In the short clip, a young boy is seen approaching a man – constructed of Lego – sitting on a bench at the amusement park.
For the 29-year-old videographer, the boy in the online clip looked familiar.
Mr Cairns was just three when his family enjoyed a holiday to Florida in 1997, and his dad Gerry captured the experience on video.
And when he compared his dad’s video to the TikTok clip, he was able to confirm it was was indeed him.
Videographer astounded to find never before seen footage
Mr Cairns said he was shocked to see the footage appear on his feed more than a quarter of a century later.
He said: “I went on TikTok first thing, scrolling through my For You page and a nostalgic advert for Disney World around the 90s came up.
“I just watched a bit of it but there were some parts of it that I recognised. The shot of the sleeping Lego man on the bench, I instantly remembered that and then I saw the back of the boy’s head and the harness. I thought, “My God, that looks so similar to me.
“I saved it, and screenshot it as I wondered if it was in fact me. A few years ago, I converted our VHS tapes to the Cloud so I could watch them back on my phone.
“My dad just happened to film the exact same moment as the boy walks up to that sleeping Lego man. I screenshot it and compared it and it was the same pattern on the t-shirt, the same harness and hairstyle.”
He added: “I’m still a bit creeped out by it as you can probably imagine. Millions of videos get uploaded every day to TikTok and a clip that I have never seen of myself when I was three years old just appeared in an advert. That had to slip through a lot of cracks to end up on my phone 26 years later.
“It is surreal because it literally is a one-second clip. It was over a quarter of a century ago in one little place in America and it’s just landed on my phone.”
Glen Cairns: ‘Everyone is totally blown away by it’
The short clip was posted by a user, who regularly shares content about Walt Disney resorts.
Astounded by the discovery, the north-east videographer took to TikTok to reveal it to his 3520 followers.
His video has been watched more than 9,000 times.
Mr Cairns says his family have been blown away by the discovery.
“My dad couldn’t believe it,” Mr Cairns said.
“My mum says she does remember people trying to interview me, but I was too shy.
“It’s probably the most surreal thing that has ever come up on my Tik Tok. You never expect to see footage of you in a different country when you are three years old.
‘Boggles the mind’
“It’s one thing that my dad filmed it as well. If he hadn’t, I might have swiped up and away and it would’ve been lost in my feed.”
He added: “Social media is run by algorithms. There is no software that would have known that was me for that to land on my page.
“There is no artificial intelligence that would have recognised the back of my head as a three-year-old and thought, ‘this goes on Glen’s phone.’
“It just makes you wonder how many clips are there of you walking past something that’s out there. It boggles the mind.”
