One of the things I'd say is that I do caution against trying too hard to stick to "old ways". I know that comfort is comforting, but remember that we do have some cool tools here like Blogs and Articles, and I sincerely hope that people utilize them. If a bunch of people always filter their searches to just the "Latest posts" or "Latest topics" then they'll be missing out on all the potential content that people are making, and that can discourage the content creators from using the tools in the intended way.
THAT SAID, under Activity > My Activity Streams you can create custom filters for the Activity Stream, and once you have one you like you can click the little Checkmark beside the name you gave it to make it your default Activity view.
Again, my hope is that people don't go too far out of their way to filter out content like this, but if you're dead set on doing so, there are ways using the Activity Stream filters. One of the best features honestly IS the ability to customize your own experience, so while I'd prefer that people see all the content, maybe that's not for you, and I still believe you should be able to experience the site in a way that works for you.