I have a lot of friends who are into cryptocurrency but even they don't understand how you can earn Steem without buying it. I get asked all the time "but how much did you buy it for" and every time I have to explain that I didn't buy the Steem. To make things easier for myself, I bought some Steem when the price was really low and now I just say that I bought Steem for around a 100 dollars worth. Not the whole truth but at least they can relate more.
RE: How do you explain Steemit to someone?