First, to clear up any confusion, WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two entirely separate entities.
Upon setting up my wordress.com account I was able to click on my tags and it would lead me to other blogger's posts described by that same word. Why doesn't it do that on wordpress.org.
WordPress.com is a blogging network, whereas WordPress.org is entirely self-contained. When you click your tags, you see your posts under your tag.
Also on wordpress.com people saw my post immediately because of the tags.
The tag views in the WordPress.com Reader only display posts from WordPress.com Blogs.
They liked my posts and followed me. This isn't the case on wordpress.org and I don't know how to find and follow bloggers and get them to follow me.
You can still follow bloggers on WordPress.com by logging in at https://wordpress.com/
As for Likes and Followers on your own WordPress.org site, all you need to do is install and setup Jetpack: http://jetpack.me/