In some embodiments, a method can involve identifying content items associated with a user account at a content management system that have a follow setting enabled for tracking changes to the content items. The method can involve monitoring, based on the follow setting, content modifications from other user accounts and read-unread status events from the user account. The method can involve identifying, for a content item, an event triggering a different read-unread status than a current read-unread status set on the user account for the content item. The method can further involve modifying the current read-unread status to the different read-unread status and updating the content item to include a visual indication of the different read-unread status.