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# Intend to Relate on Social Media — Explainer
- URL: https://intend-to-relate.ghost.io/intend-to-relate-on-social-media-explainer/
- Published: 2026-11-04T15:57:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-04T15:57:55.000Z
- Author: Intend to Relate
- Tags: Websites, Social Media, News, Instagram

**How we got here, why Instagram has become a creative playground, and where the explanations will live.**

In our previous explainer, we described the website and Ghost as our primary destinations, with YouTube and the podcasts making the long-form work available beyond our own sites and publications.

Social media has taken a somewhat different path.

## From looking for specialists to learning by doing

Early in setting up a team for Intend to Relate, we aimed to bring in specialists for parts of the work, including social media. After considering the factors involved, we decided to go direct: enter as amateurs, do research, experiment, and learn through participation.

That experience also became material for **To Them**, where we explore audiences, encounters, and the people toward whom we direct our communication.

Participating gave us questions to work with. What are we doing when we post? Who are we addressing? What do we hope happens between us and the people who encounter it?

## We began with discipline

Initially, we approached social media with the same impulse that shaped the larger project: build a disciplined body of work. Establish the ideas, develop the canon, and keep the presentation connected to that structure.

That remains an important part of Intend to Relate. But as we learned more about the medium—and discovered some of the less tangible value in participating—we began to give ourselves more room.

## Then we let the shackles off

Instagram has become a place for **art, music, multimedia experimentation, play, and a little wildness**, alongside the more direct project content.

Some posts develop an idea. Others explore a mood, an image, a sound, or an association. Some are simply fun to make.

There is value in that, too: the pleasure of creating, the discovery that comes from combining things, and the possibility of an unexpected encounter. Those experiences do not always need to become a lesson or a measurable result to justify themselves.

The disciplined work continues. We have also made room to play.

## Why Instagram is our main social space

We started TikTok and Facebook accounts as well, but **Instagram is currently our primary social media playground**—a place to make things, experiment with multimedia, and enjoy the process.

You may encounter a podcast excerpt, a musical moment, a visual experiment, or something whose connection to the larger project is less immediately apparent. That variety reflects how we are using the space.

## Some of the meanings will come back here

We will also use this blog to explain some of our social media fun: what prompted a piece, the associations behind it, or how it connects to the ideas developing across Intend to Relate.

You are welcome to enjoy something before reading an explanation—or without ever needing one. For those who want to look further, the blog will give us room to unfold some of those meanings.

**The website and Ghost remain our primary places to explore the work. Instagram is where you can also find us playing with it.**