This is the same problem I've encountered with a couple of friends I've talked to about bitcoin. A lot of people don't have the economic insight to understand why bitcoins have certain intrinsic advantages over other currencies. To them it's just play money you can generate with some obscure algorithm on a computer and then convert into "real" money. At best they see it as some form of speculation or pyramid scheme (which currently is a deflating factor imho) and in the worst case they see it as some unworldly hippie thing.

Some serious thought should be put into making people understand the intrinsic benefits of bitcoins, but I'm not sure how to do that either. Most people simply don't care and just use whatever money their government wants them to use.