Get data into array using mysql prepared statements - mysql

Question

I'm trying to get the function below to return an array of user_ids. Here is the function in php.
function users_following($follower_id)
{
include "dbconn.php";
$stmt = mysqli_prepare($con, "SELECT user_id FROM follo WHERE follower_id = ?");
mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "i", $follower_id);
mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $following_user_id);
$count = 0;
$user_array = array();
while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt) ) {
$user_array[] = $following_user_id;
$count = $count + 1;
}
mysqli_stmt_close($stmt);
if ($count > 0)
{
return $user_array;
} else {
return false;
}
}
The problem is that the above function just returns the output: 'Array' (without quotes), when I tested with the code below, not the list of user_ids.
$userid_array = users_following($_SESSION["user_id"]);
echo $userid_array;
Can anyone please help me out? If you need additional details, just comment below and I will try to clarify.