pull down to refresh

That's probably what you mean.
Yep!
I can imagine that re-loading a page (e.g,. this one) could have everything that was here last time I loaded the page be dimmed; everything new to me appears in its current illumination; and everything that would be an update (e.g., my own posts that have been zapped, replies to things I've said) would be highlighted or something. So the change set is easy to spot, and the relevant-to-me changeset is even easier?
Yep that's what I'm thinking to address the problem that this solution implies: Feature request: option to archive seen posts
Feature requests are often the wrong solution to the right problem ... is what I like to say.