As first, welcome to Steemit, @mrmarrasso!

To somewhat answer your questions, I would say that every one of us probably has own different reasons why joined Steemit. Some, maybe finding it as an additional platform or network for exposure, another as a possibility to express themselves and earn eventually something in return or some maybe even seeing it as an earning potential only.

However, whatever your reasons might be (even though pure curiosity at first), and in case you would like to learn more about it, get along with others better, and catch up in shortest possible time, besides reading official White or BluePaper and FAQ that you may find under the menu bar on the top right side of your blog, I would suggest you trying with the following series of posts, created by @walkingkeys that would guide you through.

Here are the first five of them (the rest you would find by yourself, I believe).

https://steemit.com/steemit/@walkingkeys/day-1-getting-started-with-steemit-30-days-of-steemit-success
https://steemit.com/steemit/@walkingkeys/day-2-the-key-to-posting-and-commenting-30-days-of-steemit-success
https://steemit.com/steemit/@walkingkeys/day-3-be-cool-30-days-of-steemit-success
https://steemit.com/steemit/@walkingkeys/day-4-how-to-make-sbd-when-starting-out-30-days-of-steemit-success
https://steemit.com/steemit/@walkingkeys/day-5-how-to-make-your-posts-stand-out-30-days-of-steemit-success