Conceptually, a user could create affinity groups and add those he/she is following to a particular group...then select that affinity group as their home page "sort/view". Think of it as a way for an individual who is following a number of interests/communities to display just those who are 'following' in a single, user-defined, affinity group...whether that is "family", "business associates", "knitters", "study group", etc.

Search and hashtabs accomplish this to a degree, but with the growing number of followers/following, options for displaying the conversation would allow some 'noise reduction' when a conversation is more narrowly focused.