Roosevelt argues that increased leisure does not automatically improve individual or social life. Her concern is that free time used mainly for passive entertainment may reduce opportunities for learning, creativity, participation and other forms of personal development. Television serves here as an example of a leisure activity that can become limiting when it dominates how people spend their available time.

The quotation is less a rejection of television itself than a warning about imbalance. Roosevelt suggests that the quality of leisure matters because repeated habits can influence the character and capacities of a society. Reading, conversation, cultural activity, community involvement and practical pursuits can all provide forms of engagement that passive consumption may not. The broader point is that leisure carries choices and consequences: how people use time away from work can contribute either to intellectual and civic development or, in Roosevelt’s view, to a gradual weakening of them.