Since October 2021, Cornell students have tensely audited the Instagram account @bigredmissedconnections’ anonymous confession posts just to confirm their absence of a secret admirer. Between the account and its newer handle @bigred_missedconnections which was created last fall, over 4,500 entries have accumulated — searchable only through reading text post screenshots one by one. Now, a student-run project has changed that.
Big Red Missed Connections has become a space for students to anonymously share feelings for people they were too shy to encounter in proximity. The posts, which reach a collective audience of over 9,000 followers, can be as specific as “the guy in the plaid flannel and glasses who got on the 30 around 6:00 pm 4/24 at CTB heading downtown” or as general as “the girl with long hair and a black jacket.”
Because the posts are anonymous, require no in-person interaction and can originate from anywhere on campus, the possibility of being identified is never zero. Ambiguous posts, such as the one about the long-haired girl, keep students returning to the page to check if they’re the next feature. However, the Instagram carousel format — where screenshots are uploaded in multi-post batches — make these callouts hard to find, especially when they’re posted by the dozen.
Bigredmappedconnections.com, built by Spenser Wu ’26, aggregates every post from both accounts into a searchable, filterable map interface spanning 116 Cornell locations. Wu, who operates under Unserious Ventures, launched the site as a weekend project. “Like basically every other Cornellian here, I've gone on one of those two Instagram accounts to look at the connections,” Wu said. “But you look at all of them and you wonder like, where do most of them happen? It would be so nice if I could just search everything.”
Once mapped, the posts begin to show which campus spaces dominate Cornell’s missed connection culture. With 127 posts, Morrison Dining leads all 116 mapped locations by a wide margin, with Olin Library in second place at 93. Food locations as a category account for 588 total entries, outpacing academic buildings, 344, and dormitories, 329. Out of all the student employment opportunities, Morrison Dining workers have received the most confessions.
Central Campus has 703 entries versus North Campus at 572 and West Campus at 238. The Engineering Quad sits surprisingly low at 77, and Collegetown has only received 121 posts. The most frequently-mentioned locations included Statler Hall and Duffield Hall, fitness facilities Noyes and Teagle and Donlon Hall. CHEM 2080: General Chemistry II — and more specifically, the lab portion of the course — was the class with the greatest amount of secret admirers.
When indexing the posts by keyword, “freshman” was mentioned more than any other grade level, and 30% of posts included the word “girl,” while 33% mentioned a “guy” or “boy.” Post activity tells a seasonal story too — entries pick up in September and peak around Valentine's Day before tapering into spring. "As the weather gets colder, people get progressively more down bad," Wu said.
After the data has all been laid out, is there now a foolproof method for receiving an anonymous confession? Perhaps, by taking on a new job at Morrison Dining during cuffing season? Or by moving into Donlon and achieving perfect attendance in General Chemistry II?
In reality, the inverse may be true: The posts that actually make someone stop scrolling are the ones that couldn't be about anyone else. These have a higher chance of being read by the person being described or by someone in their social network who can help relay the message. So, although detestably cliche, the best piece of advice to get featured on Big Red Missed Connections is to be as specifically yourself as possible.
Richard Ballard is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is a staff writer for the Lifestyle department and can be reached at rballard@cornellsun.com.
