Well to start with recommend it to your friends.

Essentially you need to get to know the avast program, dig around in the avastUI and find out how it can be configured.

Browse the forums and get to know what goes on here and if there is any area where your personal computer experience, not necessarily avast related might help then you can give your input. You have expressed an interest in “Frankly, it got me thinking seriously about internet security, viruses, hacking, and that sort of stuff.” So monitoring the viruses and worms forum will probably be of more interest.

I think you will quickly find where you can help, don’t jump in to quickly as some do when it is clear that it is over their head or understanding of avast.