The language school thing sounds neat - more like the things I would hope develop more. Theres something to be said for the fantasy aspects, people like Halloween etc. Living as an made up avatar 'obsessively' though, kinda scarey. I did hear about the guy who starved.   

As the technology developes we'll se more good and bad. With more advanced 'intelligence. virtual characters could indeed provide companionship for the isolated I imagine - something robots do in fiction and getting closer in reality but probably not afordable except to the few. If you can afford a robot, you can afford real companions. One could argue that the robot's interest was at least as genuine as the bought companions I suppose. Imbued with enough of your personality, a virtual clone could outlive you. People already talk to their dead spouses etc. Having one that could talk back would be nice.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken