Following vs. Unfollowing

I'm fairly new here, and I had noticed that a handful of contributors decided to follow me -- and I'm perfectly fine with that. I then decided to follow some of them back, as a friendly gesture. However, my wall began to fill up with postings I wasn't all that interested in reading, and it was getting harder for me to go back and search for my own postings (in case I wanted to make edits or view others' comments and replies). As a result, I decided to to unfollow them all except for one person I'm already close with. Do those who are being 'unfollowed' receive the same kind of notification as when someone originally follows them? When I unfollowed them I meant no offense (and I'm not accusing anyone of 'point-farming'), so I would hope it's not taken personally. Anybody have any comments about this? If someone chooses to follow me, should I feel obligated to reciprocate? Thanks.