Brett Durrett, CEO of IMVU, discusses the importance of avatars for social virtual reality. He notes that IMVU has over 3 million monthly active users and the world's largest user-generated 3D content catalog. Experts like Mark Zuckerberg, Brendan Iribe, and Nick DiCarlo emphasize that for virtual reality to succeed socially, it must enable face-to-face interactions between avatars in shared virtual spaces, just as social media allows real-world interactions. Durrett warns that avatars must avoid the "uncanny valley" and enable users to uniquely express themselves in order to deliver meaningful social and emotional connections.