Following users

What is the point of Follow on user's page? 

I do not interact much and therefore have few friends but there are many users whose writing/posts I like without necessarily wanting to become friends with (most of them either do not accept friend requests or do only if asked by people they'd already talked to!).  I would like to be able to see when they publish a new review etc. "Follow" does not do that. So what does it do? Just counts people?

Thanks! Had the same question. So for now, following someone is just the equivalent of clicking on a "like" icon? Good to know. But then, best to avoid it in case it suddenly starts doing something more? 😱