Way too early to earn any merits or to be concerned about them.  Also this:

...makes me think OP has more accounts than just this one.  And I'd like to ask who these so-called 'forum elites' are.  Merit sources?  Members with a lot of merits?  Seems like a strange assumption of such from a newbie.

It's been a while since we've had this many threads about merits in Meta.  There's no magic to earning them--you have to put thought and effort into your posts, which is exactly what I wrote in the last thread about merits.  That was about two days ago if I recall correctly.

And OP, why do you think merits are useful?  They don't really keep you from reading or writing whatever you like here.  They're only important for ranking up, and that's not a big deal except those who want to earn more money via signature campaigns.  If that's your interest, I've no sympathy for you.  But just keep posting and doing it well, and you'll earn merits.