The face behind TU Missed Connections remains a mystery to Trinity. However, the account owner revealed details about the account previously unknown in an anonymous interview.
Three years ago, the TU Missed Connections Instagram account made its iconic debut. Posting anonymous confessions, the account has grown to over 1,000 followers and boasts over 500 posts.
In reflecting on the process behind their account, the account owner disclosed their inspiration behind creating TU Missed Connections. According to them, their friend at another university started an Instagram account with a similar concept. Due to its success, they decided to make a similar account for Trinity.
“This is so cool. I never expected the account to become this,” they said.
As for the process itself, TU Missed Connections has a Google form in their bio where people can submit anonymous messages. The confessions go to a spreadsheet where TU Missed Connections can access them.
“I go through the Google Form in chronological order and paste those into a chat with myself, screenshot them and then format it into a post,” they said. “That’s what ends up taking the most time.”
While formatting the messages takes a long time, simply going through all the messages can be pretty time consuming as well. TU Missed Connections explained how they filter through confessions to choose what to post.
“I always monitor and filter the submissions, so I don’t post anything hateful or targeted or racist or homophobic because that’s not what this page is about,” they said. “I feel very strongly that this page is about positivity and love and finding missed connections so anything like that doesn’t belong here.”
Due to the time commitment, the account manager sometimes struggles to post frequently. As the only person running the account, the responsibility of posting rests solely on their shoulders.
“I like knowing I’m making people’s lives more interesting or better because of it, but it is a lot of work and time to make the posts which can be difficult to juggle with everything else,” they said.
TU Missed Connections started posting in February after a hiatus that began in March 2024. The account manager states the conflicts that led to this situation.
“I kinda dropped off the grid a bit, “ they said. “And that was mostly because finals started happening and then I didn’t want to post over the summer because there’s very few students on campus, so submissions would be limited. I meant to pick it back up again at the start of this year, but life just got in the way and this was the first chance I got where I could breathe a bit and think about posting again.”
Despite the long pause, the account manager was pleasantly surprised to see account engagement return quickly. According to their Instagram insights, the account has had over 19 thousand views in the last 30 days, compared to the 0 views before the account started posting again.
Account engagement stems beyond just views, likes and comments for this account. TU Missed Connections stated that sometimes, people will follow-up with the account to find a connection. The account manager described one of their favorite stories.
“One of them posted about the other describing their hair, a piercing and where they were walking, and I was able to connect them, and they dated for several months,” they said. “There are other stories as well, but I would say it is rarer than I would like. It’s my favorite thing to know that I am connecting others and helping them find someone who will make them happy”
In one such instance, Chris Medeiros, senior communication major, made a friend through the account. He stated that without TU Missed Connections, the pair probably wouldn’t have gotten so close.
“I want to say it was about a year and a half ago. One of my now-good-friends submitted a post about feeling like they don’t have friends, and so I dmed TU Missed connections,” Medeiros said. “We hung out a few times and then we’ve been regular workout buddies … We probably wouldn’t have actually started talking if it weren’t for that TU Missed Connections thing.”
Along with many others, Medeiros has unsuccessfully attempted to guess the identity of TU Missed Connections. While the account manager stated that they have no plans of revealing their identity, they believe certain elements of their page hint at who they are.
“I think my story highlights ‘polls,’ ‘ama,’ ‘who am i’ all reveal pieces of my character,” they said.
TU Missed Connections might be able to connect students now, but they will not be at Trinity forever. The account manager expressed a desire to pass the account onto another Trinity student rather than attempting to post after graduation.
“I want the account to be something available for people to find their missed connections,” they said.
