When a user doesn’t follow anyone, the site acts like they are following 5-15 active users. This results in 20+ update notifications per few days or so, visible in the little bubble at the top of the home page to the right of the media selector and to the left of the filters button (on mobile webpage).
If a user (like myself) doesn’t want these updates, there’s no clear way to turn them off.
Even blocking the individual users whose activity shows up as updates, doesn’t stop them from appearing.
The only way I was able to stop them was by following relatively inactive users.
Its frustrating and unclear how to stop this feature if its unwanted or distracting.