Trinity College Dublin seemed to have it all: a historic campus in the heart of Dublin city, a tradition of scholarship spanning over centuries and a meme culture of a quality unmatched by any other Irish university. Yet, in recent days, a small group of students have shown us what student life at Trinity was missing. Until now, Trinity lacked an anonymous online space, where its students could broadcast their most intimate feelings to an audience of thousands. Trinder has filled that gap, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
For the small minority of students still oblivious to the craze, Trinder is a Facebook page that allows Trinity students to make anonymous submissions, adopting a similar format to other university confession pages such as Oxfeud and Bristruths. Trinder, however, has a romantic edge, inviting students to post shamelessly about the people they lock eyes with at the gym, purchase soup from at the SU café and sit behind in their Introduction to Sociology lectures.
Speaking to Trinity News, the creators of Trinder say they “set up the page in the knowledge that Valentine’s day was approaching”, a time of year when Trinity’s campus is transformed into a hotbed of pining hearts, ensuring maximum influx of content into their submissions box. At least now, those not in receipt of 12 red roses and a Nestle Dairy Box when February 14 rolls around will have Trinder to turn to as they await their Deliveroo for one. With the advent of Trinder, why would anybody choose to spend their Valentine’s day taking a romantic stroll down Dun Laoghaire pier when they could be composing a raunchy declaration of love for public consumption, all from the comfort of the Berkeley pit?
Trinder founders said they were surprised a page like this had not been created sooner. They swooped in and seized the opportunity and now, despite being just a fortnight old, Trinder has already racked up nearly 3,000 followers and established itself as a cornerstone of Trinity student culture. Trinder’s creators have also revealed that while they plan on continuing to popularise the page, they intend to create a sister page shortly after Valentine’s Day, called Trinfess, which will be “more of a wide-ranging page for any anonymous confessions or observations that are university-related”. They also hope to potentially collaborate with other societies on campus to host Trinder-related events.
Trinder has injected a palpable buzz into the Trinity campus. Enabling the students of Trinity to therapeutically share the most explicit content generated by their yearning hearts, it has filled a gaping hole in student life that nobody realised had existed. Believe the hype.
