Avatars reflect personalities, and I will judge others based on that. It's the first thing my eyes are drawn to, second thing being the name, because images are much flashier than text. An appropriate representation image is important to me, and will shift my views accordingly on that person.
Honestly, I find it to be a good representation of personality even though people claim it not to be. What you choose as your avatar, even if it's a careless cavalier choice, does reflect people more than they think. If it is a choice that looks careless, then it reflects a mellow and casual personality. Whilst if it is more flowery and flashy, it represents a more aesthetic-appreciating persona. Avatars say much about a person if you examine them correctly.
Of course, I'm not saying you should judge a book by its cover or that a simple picture can say everything. It's just that I've found a lot of peoples' chosen avatars tend to match their writing style and words though, and even their names. Even emotions shown in an avatar with a face can kind of say something about that person's nature. An avatar with an unpleasant expression tends to make me associate that person with unpleasantness, even though I try not to judge based on facial expressions of these pictures so much.
My avatar is always carefully chosen. I am EXTREMELY picky and don't even know what the standards are myself. (Other than the fact that the subject in the avatar must always be female and a living creature with a clearcut face, as I do not wish to represent myself as male or an abstract image) If something feels right though, then I use it. And I tend to begin writing and speaking like that avatar as well. So that's also why the choice is important. It affects my personality slightly. I try to go with avatars that make me feel more bold and confident whilst still being fitting of me.
For instance, my current avatar. It was drawn by me for the purpose of being used as an avatar. (Which is something that I usually fail at because I'm far too picky.) That is Shion Uzuki from Xenosaga, and I feel she is the character in fiction who is most like me. Not only that, but her general appearance looks a lot like how I speak and come off, and also how I wish to speak and come off. It is a bookish, intelligent sort of appearance (the glasses help and they fit with my real life glasses), and makes me feel more confident and speak more formally. With this avatar, I feel I can say a lot of things I wouldn't normally say. That expression also fits me, as it is kind of unsure. Though she is intelligent, she's still vulnerable, and I feel it's important not to come off as an elitist robot. Because I am very flawed and completely the opposite of that. So does the clothing as well, as it is something I would wear.
Though I didn't draw these things specifically on her. They just kind of happened at random, and happened to be things that felt right. All I knew when I started the drawing was that I wanted it to be Shion. The rest just fell into place.
So basically, I am crazy about avatars, yes.
