My 2 cents: I don't like someone I don't know following me, either in RL or here. It's creepy. The day after I joined here, some man was (and still is) following me. I wish they would remove this feature; it has no purpose.

Not quite since anyone can follow anyone else, it's not necessarily mutual--more like Twitter than Facebook.

Mutual following may be more akin to Friending.

Thank you all... well, the majority of you anyway, for your helpful replies.

No - friending someone on Facebook requires mutual agreement. Following someone is more like Twitter, it's a unilateral action.

Go to a Friendship Site.... sure you will find one there.

Yes

No. It simply means that what that person posts triggers an alert to you, so that you can see it.

i don't think im following anybody, unless it was an accident when i was trying 2 figure everything out with both this site and my new(2 me) laptop. i have a few people following me, i was slightly surprised when i found out. i have only recently become more comfortable with people tho so it wasnt anything against anyone in particular, i was just more like aah! people!...wait...im here for people, calm your tits woman! and then it was ok. none of them have been creepers or anything so thats cool. still can't figure out why theyre following me tho, lol im just a dorkfish

I have 65 followers. I have conversed with some of them. We don't have friend requests here. Followers follow for different reasons. They like your posts, want to get to know you better or some other reason.

Following is a way to indicate interest in that person. That interest may simply be in their posts, or it could also indicate an interest in wanting to know them better. I do both and follow people who I think post interesting questions or other content and also people I might want to know better.

My impression of how following is perceived on this site is more or less "it's all good." On other sites, much is made of observing some sort of ettiquette around this sort of thing (request permission before following). I don't think that's the case here and have never had an issue. I follow a number of people and am followed. Despite all that following, I'm not compelled to keep looking over my shoulder nervously. LOL! Follow away!

I'm still pretty new to the site/app and was wondering the same thing. I like the two previous answers tho

I suppose following could be thought of as friending...or harmless stalking