It could be your server, what time you play, or other things, but in general people seem to be keeping to their LS's for many things in this game. Coincidentally, the patch coming later this week is adding in a better party search that works more like FF11's, so hopefully after that you'll be able to find more people to play with. I know there's quite a bit of people that are holding off on logging on until that patch hits, so maybe that is a reason why you aren't seeing as many talkative people.

As far as talking with people or joining LS's, you can try shouting in Ul'dah or making conversation with people at aetheryte camps. You can also try posting on the Gyshal board in the Forums here. Good luck =)