How to Send a Friend Request on Facebook

By Carolyn Abram from Facebook For Dummies, 4th Edition

If you’re low on Facebook friends at the moment, don’t feel bad. There are many ways to find your friends on Facebook. And once you find them, you send a friend request. It’s easy!

Type a name into the the search box in the blue bar on top.

A list of search results of all people with that name is returned. To the right of each name, you may notice a big button that says Add as Friend.
Click the Add Friend button.

This opens a menu asking you if you want to add that person to any of your Friend Lists. It also changes the Subscribe button to a Subscribed button, indicating that you want to see that person’s posts in your News Feed and Ticker.
(Optional) Add that person to any of the lists you’ve created or to any of the smart lists Facebook has created for you.
(Optional) Change your subscription settings by clicking the Subscribed button.

This opens a menu of subscription options. You can choose to see All, Most, or Only Important Posts from your new friend. By default, you’ll be subscribed to most updates and all update types. You can choose to see certain types of posts or not see them by checking and unchecking the options Facebook offers. For example, if you want to see Statuses but not Photos, leave Status Updates checked and uncheck Photos in the subscription menu.

You won’t be friends with someone until they confirm your Friend Request. You’ll be notified after they do by a red bubble appearing above the notifications icon in the blue bar on top.