Playing electronic games largely replaces television in my time. For me, it's mainly a mindless time passer.
RPGs (in person, no electronics) do something different, a thing that isn't really filled any other way. It is most closely associated in my mind with sitting on a front porch while it rained, probably doing something productive with hand crafts or food preparation, while people took turns telling stories. That was still a thing when I was a child, if uncommon and beginning to die out. Or looking at mythological books, with pictures, and stopping to imagine the story going of on a tangent, but one that still fit what had happened. It wasn't a huge leap for me to blend the two into a game.