You don’t need VR for it, you can try it out in desktop mode if you want. I’d suggest steering away from the popular “hang-out” worlds like the Black Cat, but it’s fun. I would suggest rebinding the default keyboard controls for facial expressions though. They’re a bit clumsy. Also, some worlds are designed with VR in mind and may be difficult or impossible to play without VR (you’ll probably be fine as long as you aren’t trying to join one of the simulator worlds though).

Edit: additionally, if you want to hang out with people who will be the most helpful and welcoming, look for furry worlds. Furries tend to be the power users of the VR world (and virtual worlds in general) for obvious reasons. That said, be prepared to mute, report and block users, because furry worlds also tend to get the highest concentration of assholes, crashers (people with avatars designed to crash games) and quest kiddies. They tend to join and start screaming slurs at furries until they get banned or realize everyone’s blocked them and move on.