relationship advice

so me and my boyfriend just started college but we go to different colleges a few hours away from each other. we hardly talk which i understand because we are both busy but when we do talk i feel like he doesn't want to talk to me. he joked about breaking up with me a couple days ago saying stuff like " i've been meaning to tell you something and don't think this isn't hard for me because it is" and then he joked about something at the end and didn't officially break up with me. After that i've just been feeling so terrible lately and i love him and tell him when i can, but he tells me he doesn't know what love is so he isn't going to tell me, i understand that but he also doesn't say anything to be that will make me feel loved or even cared for. i tell him i miss him all the time because i truly do and he doesn't say he missed me back or anything. i just feel so upset and lost because i just want to feel like i mean something to someone not just something he can text whenever he feels like it ( which isn't often). any advice?