URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — Not everyone has a date for Valentine’s Day, but one University of Illinois professor may be able to help.

He asked how students approached dating 12 years ago and did the same study 10 years later to find the roadmap for relationships. After surveying 250 students between the two studies, he found their approach to dating stayed mostly the same.

U of I Professor Brian Ogolsky asked students in both surveys what the normal progression of a relationship is, and what actions mark the different stages. He said he wasn’t expecting the students’ answers to be so similar through the years, especially when it came to the use of technology.

“Everybody kind of has a cell phone,” Ogolsky said. “People are connected, but we really didn’t see people talking about technology much. The general stages or phases that they were talking about were relatively consistent, so we kind of took from that that people are still thinking about the same kinds of trajectories and relationships. The way they do them might be different but it’s not immediately on their minds when they describe them.”

However, it wasn’t all the same. The first group of students in 2012 talked about commitment in the form of engagement or marriage. The second set of people in 2022 talked more about actions like moving in together.

The other difference was who people told when they became official in their relationships. Instead of family being the top priority, Ogolsky said students are now more focused on telling friends and their “chosen” families.