cell phones

well.. i use my cellular on a regular basis, i currently am without landline and so this is my main source of communication to the outside world. it is how i get a hold of friends, have friendly banter, make plans, phone into work, and basically am just available to get a hold of. I find it increasingly unnerving that text msg's become a better way to communicate with people than actually dialing their number and listening to their voice. I'm not sure why this is. have we become so desensitized to each other that we don't feel the need to have a short conversation rather than send several texts? are we so wrapped up in a space of technology that we have lost our voice? are we muted by the ease with which we can write a msg to someone in the middle of a conversation with another?? and better yet, we can write a msg about that person we are speaking with!?
on another note, it seems that cell phones have become somewhat of a commodity, the new iPhone (pretty as it is)

or blackberry's seems more like a micro mini computer, or i guess it is... and people with these phones are constantly on them... is it all part of an image that we have a predisposition to have one???
don't get me wrong, i love my phone in all its cracked screen sometimes doesn't work, bad battery glory, i don't think i couldn't have one... but do we spend so much time on them that we loose touch with whats important? or is this what is becoming important...