I don't recommend it to any of my friends because I know none of them would really be interested in it and I don't want to bear the burden if they invest and it looses them money. However, I can then be smug when if in the future it does rise in value considerably and they then wish they had of bought some but as we can see bitcoin is not a guaranteed money making investment currently.
sadly bitcoin is mostly considered as an investment instead of some sort of currency and a new and better way of payments.
and while this is the mentality of people and the price is low and price history currently shows a downward trend and a stable state, people are not going to invest and since they most people don't consider it a currency they don't buy and use bitcoin either.