Phone thing

I try to call a friend. I look at my cell phone, I open it, I go through my contacts' list and find the name I need, and then I stop. It's kind of awkward, to call a person. What if they don't want to talk to me? What if they are busy? What if they don't remember who am I?
It is a new thing, btw. Well, not exactly new, as I always had troubles to talk to random people, but it has become easy and normal to call and talk on any business topic – whether I am looking for work, working, or just solving some problems at home. I need to call – I call. Don't allow myself any nervousness any more. If I don't reach a person I need, I leave a voice message.
But the normal conversations has become increasingly awkward. I don't remember it being any problem to call a friend. Or a acquaintance. Someone I knew and wanted to chat. It hasn't been a problem up until very recent time. And I wonder, is it me? Or is it the time? I can always blame myself for pretty much anything, but there are a number of opinions I read in the past months that suggest that using telephone as, well, telephone has become something not quite appropriate -http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/fashion/20Cultural.html
the funny thing – people who cheerfully announce that they don't call any more, they text instead. And I hate texting. I mean, I am not so far behind the civilisation, as to prefer “snail mail”, previously known as “mail”. (Though I love getting the enveloped addressed me in cursive, and keep all your holiday cards and letters.) But I happily email, or pretend to be connected through several social networks and blogging communities. And, of course, I call my family whenever I feel like. There is a great value in communicating this way – one has time to think over and answer at one's convenience. But it also feels very one-sided – who knows when the convenience strikes and whether it will ever strike. It lacks the immediacy of an actual conversation.
I did call my friend. She couldn't talk at the moment, and she called an hour later, and we spent a nice half an hour chatting all kinds of nonsense that one would never bother to write down in a letter...

But really - are conversations outdated?