That's exactly what Ray Bradbury himself said. He was responding to the invention of television and the addiction to shallow entertainment he believed it would

That's exactly what Ray Bradbury himself said. He was responding to the invention of television and the addiction to shallow entertainment he believed it would bring to the society. We don't always need to interpret literature in accordance with the author's original intentions, but it helps to acknowledge and remember them. Having said that, though, I'd like to ask why Bradbury bothered to include a powerful image of censorship (burning of books) in the story if that was't what he intended to focus on. It would seem that a population addicted to shallow entertainment won't even need firemen to burn their books; they'll just let the dead trees rot in a basement somewhere. Perhaps censorship was needed because there's always a small number of people who find books interesting. Who are attracted to deep thinking. Who will develop and harbor subversive ideologies as a result, and who can incite a revolution when the conditions are ripe. As long as these people exist, the powers that be have a reason to fear. As long as some of us are reading books, there's hope. Or at least that's what I think Bradbury was trying to say, especially at the end.