It turns out I've pretty much always kind of been one I guess? I was a kid in the 90's and early 00's, So I grew up with a lot of cartoons and ads with anthro characters. In elementary/grade school I was in cub scouts (younger kid version of Boy Scouts.) The book is funny to look at now because there is an anthro wolf pack leader guy or something who's like on like every other page.
SOOO I generally always liked anthro characters in entertainment. I just thought of it as normal and didn't think about it. THEN when I was middle school, the infamous CSI Furry episode aired.
This was my first exposure to "Furries" and any concept or idea of the community or anything. Internet at the time was still very commonly dial-up and pre-social media as we know it. After seeing that I NOPED away from that for YEARS.
I've come across some stuff over the years and then found MLP in my early 20's kind of by accident. I liked it because they were "talking animals" AND seemed to be late teens/early 20's which was odd/interesting to me- especially compared to what MLP was in the past. I also loved that it was flash animation- which I had some experience animating with a little in school. Well I've been around here since and have even gone to the G4 MLP movie with an MLP Facebook group. I met a furry couple (in normal clothes lol) that I sat across from when we went to dinner after. They were cool, and I wasn't thinking it was all like the CSI episode anymore. I still wasn't actively seeking anything more about it at the time though
THEN comes around thanksgiving last year. All the BS was going around about Zuckerberg and his "Metaverse" crap and I was getting mad thinking about him just trying to suck some cash out of it while sucking the soul and creativity out of it in the process before it even really had a chance to go anywhere.
Well, with COVID going on the last couple years and having to work normal throughout it, I missed out on what's going on with VR on the non-corporate side. It actually is pretty cool especially VRChat. I ended up finding videos about VR furries in VRChat when looking up VR. There were some using Omegle (random webcam chat site) so they would show up as their furry avatar to the other person and were recording their reaction/conversations. It was pretty funny. Then I found out that they stream on Twitch and it's pretty hilarious. There is definitely a spectrum in ratings though, I'm sure you get what I mean. The group I associate with now I would say generally is pg13 and kick out people being too obnoxious or lewd. The group also calls each other out if they use "furry words" aka equivalent to saying "everypony" or "every creature" which I love. I DON'T like nonsense talk. Basically they're pretty normal and discuss pretty normal things. The main difference is that everyone just has some kind of anthropomorphic avatar.
I have a project that is a webcomic/ animated shorts that got sidetracked big time by covid pretty much destroying 2 years of everyone's life. The main character I guess could be considered "furry related" somewhat. I may roll that project in with this VR stuff somehow as time goes on. I don't think the character could be my "fursona" since he's quite a bit different then me and has an accent (which is important), but we'll see. Who the hell knows, it might work and could be really fun, especially if I make all the settings I've thought up for the project into VRChat worlds. I mean there's a lot of possibilities with this VR stuff.
As for now I don't have a "fursona" per se, but I just have an avatar I use in VRChat. it's a common model you can buy and customize called a Nardoragon. I just found a free "public" one that has a design I like. I'm working on getting a VR setup, but it's not cheap. You can use VRChat with just a keyboard, mouse and monitor, except your arms/hands just don't do anything. I have a microphone and generic Xbox style controller I've been using for now.
I've just ordered the graphics card to upgrade my old one, but I still have to get everything else set up where I want it and get internet at my house, since my phone in hotspot mode WON'T cut it for that LOL.
IRL though, I don't have any interest in getting a fursuit. I don't have anything against them, and the detail work on some is VERY cool. I just personally have zero interest myself in being a walking stuffed animal. Plus I have a thing of not liking blank staring eyes. At least in VRChat they lock on to what you're looking at and you can even get ACTUAL eye and face tracking if you want to spend the money.