[walleeee]

I was privy to something while I still had a twitter account: a certain group of people, mostly anon or semi-anon accounts, having been brought into contact by some combination of algorithm, self-selection and serendipity, many of whom seemed to identify more with their emerging twitter ingroup than local circles, more than a few of whom self-described as very (if not terminally) online, self-organized a gathering IRL, which, while some seem to have had a good experience, quickly strained apparent bonds and revealed a number of fault lines

if this sort of thing is not unique to this particular group I could see it reinforcing the schism you describe, with online "communities" hesitant to talk to each other with goggles off lest it be discovered that a virtually established milieu may depend more on the avatars than the people behind them

[throwaway4aday]

I think VR and Twitter are far too different for this to fully apply. VR interaction involves real time voice communication along with a good deal of body language. Twitter has a forced limit on the number of characters you can use and is text and static image only. A fairer comparison might be video calls but I don't know of any online communities that use these exclusively so the closest would be Discord servers where a lot of people use voice chat.

There are quite a few people that have met up irl after building a relationship in apps like VR Chat, I think they've probably had the same success rate that people who met through chatrooms or dating sites have.

[walleeee]

Good point. I imagine people will self-modify substantially in VR though. If we have high resolution VR it seems likely we'll be able to alter our voices and change our virtual bodies at will. And if video games and Twitter and even IRL cultural practices show anything it's that the typical human is a role-playing animal. When roles which previously floated free of any material basis come into contact IRL I wonder if this has the potential to create tension regardless of the immersiveness of the original virtual environment.

[throwaway4aday]

I suppose it might in some cases, especially if the relationship is a romantic one. If it were two friends meeting up for the first time I'd bet they'd be able to maintain the friendship even if there was a bit of a surprise about each other's appearance or actual voice. People do already use voice changers and a huge variety of avatars in VR Chat and other social VR apps so I'm sure this has happened quite a few times.