This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Maya Stokley. Find her on Instagram at @maya.aesthetic. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
“To the girl with the brown hair on the REXL bus with the big earrings, we looked at each other for a minute, and I wanted to say that you are so beautiful. Let me know if you want to meet up.”
As a Rutgers student who goes to school with over 5,000 students, when will you ever find this person again? If you are at a prominent U.S. college or university, you may have seen an anonymous Instagram page with your school’s initials and “Missed Connections” attached. What are these Missed Connections Instagram pages? What are people missing or trying to find? Join me in discovering how this phenomenon is part of our college experiences!
Crazy Thing Is, It Didn’t Start With Colleges!?
Okay everyone, when I tell you that I was gooped and gagged that this “Missed Connections” shindig started with Craigslist. THE CRAIGSLIST! I’m sorry, but Craigslist is like the OG, and I am still shocked that people are still posting on their “Missed Connections” pages by state! But let’s get back on track; excuse my intrusive thought process briefly.
Craigslist originated the Missed Connections anonymous page for New Yorkers to exchange moments and experiences with one another, especially with strangers. Remember my sarcastic but realistic example from the first paragraph? Yeah, most of the Craigslist posts were worded in that fashion. Moreover, the page became so popular that different websites cater to Missed Connections only, like MissedYouNYC. Another sector that Missed Connections entered was Instagram, precisely the Instagram page Overheard New York! With over 1.5 million followers (which is so impressive), Overheard New York uses social media to its advantage by sharing messages and responses on their Instagram stories!
However, Missed Connections aren’t necessarily romantic as well! They can be funny moments about events throughout New York City! Check out this post from Overheard NYC!
Now, Colleges Are Getting Into Missed Connections!
Since I am still a college student, I am in the whirlwind of the college experience regarding these Instagram pages. When I googled “Missed Connections college” for this article, the way I almost threw my laptop across my room when I saw my school as the top search. I covered my mouth in shock so why not include good ol’ Rutgers!
Rutgers.missed connections has over 15,000 followers, and they post daily submissions of potential romances, roommates, or to tell someone off (which are kind of hilarious) on their Instagram page. The page began, hold on let me scroll through the archives in my mind right now:
OKAY! I got it! The page began in September 2021 (literally my freshman year!) after the COVID pandemic, and 2021 was the year when college students could return to campus. The roses were still dead, and the vibes were low, but my goodness, once this page dropped, everyone wanted to meet so fast! From the buses and student centers to walking on a street, Rutgers students have not failed to miss when it comes to finding someone attractive (even for a split second). Here are a few submissions from the Rutgers page:
Wait, scroll to the sixth slide because it is so cute and adorable! The page promotes the submissions as anonymous and allows you to submit anything that happens on campus. Think of your college’s Reddit but in an Instagram format! Also, can we talk about the descriptions of some of the submissions? Some are very descriptive and detailed, but others are a bit vague. With a big campus like Rutgers, how can one determine who is who?
It Works? It Really Works?!
But, GASP! Some people are responding to the posts on the Missed Connections page comment section! For example, if one post were about finding roommates, a person or two would comment on the slide number and drop their socials! If I had known that worked, I would have a group of roommates ready to go! With the romantic aspect, I do not know if a match was made through this page, but they tried to do so with RU My Valentine this past week!
In their Linktree, they created a website that allowed Rutgers students to be matched with people based on a questionnaire! Creative, right? With over 1,500 students signing up, there were about 2,000 matches! Now, were they successful? I have no clue. But, because this page is very well-known in the Rutgers community and has become a staple in the past four years, it is highly successful!
For More Context, It Is Not Just Rutgers On The Trend
The University of Virginia stepped into the Missed Connections trend in August 2019. There are several missing connections pages with the University of Virginia, and I am very impressed with their consistency. However, the last post with the most popular page was made three years ago…
Who knows? Maybe it will come back up again or not. But one of the posts looks promising, and hopefully, they have found this person!
Based on this article by Point Park Globe, Point Park University had a Missed Connections page, but the article did not give a good opinion on it. Like ouch! The author thought the pages were giving stalker vibes, and honestly, they are not wrong, depending on the context of the posts.
From what I can see from some of the posts, there are some wholesome comments about people, especially those who have been nervous about talking to someone recently! Maybe Point Park Missed Connections are going on a positive track!
I hope that more colleges pursue a Missed Connections page because it is very entertaining to read some stories because I am nosy. But, two, this is a very inclusive forum that allows students to meet with other students for friendships, relationships, concert buddies, gym buddies, travel buddies, and more! In a world where we are all digitally connected, why not make the most of it?!
Does your college have a Missed Connections page? Have you submitted one before? Share in the comments!
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