Welcome aboard iModeler, Victoria! Don't worry about being tech challenged, it happens to the best of us 😀 As to your specific questions:
To add a friend, you first click on any member's name, this will lead you to their profile page. There you will find a series of buttons, the first one being "Add Friend". Click this button, and you request will be sent to that member. As soon as they accept your request you are done.

When someone requests your friendship, you will see a notification in the left column of the page, right under your name. Click the "Friend requests" link, this will bring you to your list of open requests.

Please note that this later feature right now is only available on desktop (PC), not on your smart phone.

There is a tutorial page which should help you to get started on writing your first article (https://imodeler.com/help/), for anything else just ask here.

Cheers,
Boris