Louis:

  Your profile indicates that you are Following  108 members.

 Perhaps you should identify why you Follow 108 members and therefore you will have answered your own question.

So it is just like a 'favorites' list then, eh? OK thanks!

@Bruce - I assume it is a courtesy to 'follow back' people who follow you, hence the number you quote in you facile reply.

    Yes  Louis, part of following is merely courtesy.

  Following is  also asking  a member's permission to send and receive private messages.

    Following is a way of indicating    a certain respect for the person.

     It is a feature of some use on Italki. 

 Such a feature could be modified and  enlarged with advanced features.

     When I click  "Follow" I am telling a language student that I am "seeing" them.

It is a kind of neutral invitation,  which informs the member that I am available for contact.

  It can be seen as a way of saying  "I like you."

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@Bruce - I assume it is a courtesy to 'follow back' people who follow you, hence the number you quote in you facile reply.

@xiaokaoy - that makes sense! It is a PITY that the previous functionality that gave 'following' a more useful purpose has been removed, but as @thegreat makes clear, you can at least do it manually,

Following someone is the first thing to do if you hopes that they also follow you so that you can send messages to each other. Besides, Italki used to work like Twitter --- you could see in your Itlaki homepage the latest activities of people followed by you, which were arranged in chronological order.