I had a similar experience with a friend of mine who wouldn't join Steem even though I use it all the time to have interesting conversations with interesting people (and why not him by the same token). Granted, the man has never had a social media account. But he used to be in IT before his self-funded retirement (a bachelor, can survive on little). He views Steem with suspicion, calling it a Ponzi scheme, although anyone can participate here without investing a dime in it. There would've been no risk for him. My own Steem Power and that delegated to me make my like worth about 0.30 SBD at maximum power which equals about 3 USD. A regular conversation by email between us had on Steem would put tens of $$ in his pocket. This is like a virtual pub that not only doles out free drinks but also pays you a good salary for entertaining your friends and yourself. For anybody to decline this is beyond my ability to grasp.