Dear Grandparenting: I must be confused. The last time I checked, young love and courtship went like this: You find someone and decide to go steady and see where it leads. Is there any other way? When the right person comes along, you want exclusive rights.

My grandchildren are incredibly private about their personal life. My parents always knew who dated whom because that’s just the way it was. As for my grandkids, another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. I’m not sure how much their parents really know about their love life, but it seems that none of my six grandchildren has a special sweetie, including the older ones. At their age, I’d already gone through several.

So tell me how kids do it these days. You can’t tell me they all stopped falling in love or finding someone they think is special. Do they just play it cool and hope that special person will wait around forever? I don’t have a clue, so please explain. Confused, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania

Dear Confused: Dating isn’t dead, it’s just in transition. Like everything else, love now plays itself out on the Internet, especially among adolescents and teens who are heaviest users of social media technologies like Facebook and Twitter. Virtual dating — getting to know each other by exchanging messages and photos on smart phones — is the new model of modern courtship. Singles under 30 are snapping up dating apps enabling them to connect with others who share certain interests, like farming or cats.

Some still fall head over heels and commit to romantic relationships, but more grandchildren are taking their sweet time. Back in the day, teens might date a few times and then get hot and heavy. Now it’s often the other way around — “hooking up” or “friends with benefits” as they say.

Serious romantic entanglements are being postponed across the board. People marry later, if ever. Half of American adults are unmarried. And today’s grandchildren, the so-called millennial generation, are generally in no great hurry either. According to people who study these things, millennials are entitled and narcissistic, inclined to think of themselves as that “special person.”

It’s about me now, they reckon, not us. But grandchildren who opt for a good education and steady job before taking the leap have their priorities in order. It’s mighty hard to make a go of it when there’s no money coming in.

GRAND REMARK OF THE WEEK

Big Daddy from Cincinnati “eases back instead of scolding” his grandchildren. “It’s easier to build up a child than repair an adult. Choose your words wisely.”