That's very interesting. I don't really recall the first time I heard about Bitcoin, but I didn't start actively following cryptocurrency trends until last year at about this time when one of my fellow graduate students started mentioning that he had purchased some Bitcoin.
I also signed up for Steemit last November, not realizing that it was also based on blockchain technology. I didn't start being active on Steemit until earlier this summer when I met their blockchain developer, and he encouraged me to give it another go.