I had never played a single hand of poker until I started on-line with play money.
Many undervalue what you can learn. At lower levels it is reckless, wild play for sure- a baptism of fire. However, learning to cut a path through all the nonsense to build a serious play chip bankroll takes dedication and thousands have done this and pride themselves on their play. Even Terrance Chan (DAT Poker) noted the other day that players who have built play chip bankrolls into the tens of millions are serious players.
In short, you need to select what to play. Playing low tier NLHE cash games is a farce, as is lowest level PLO (just an excuse to spew and gamble wildly without any concern of hand strength). However, as soon as you switch to MTT's with a min buy in of 10k, where time and patience are needed to cash and run deep it's an entirely different ball game.
Just like freerolls it depends how much of yourself you invest.
As a novice (with nothing more than a growing interest/appreciation of poker) I immediately set out a spread sheet to chart the MTT's I played, cashed in and naturally how my bankroll was growing. In short, I took it seriously as if I was playing cash.
All that I learnt/extracted (literally starting from scratch) has stood in me good stead for a phase two of my nascent poker experience where I have now just started concentrating all but exclusively on freerolls.
I have been around the block and then some with those who say that poker without money on the line is not to be taken seriously. That is simply their view and too much a generalization. Millions around the world battle with play chips every day and take themselves and the game very seriously.
If you put a lot into it, you will take a lot out of it. It will set you up for forays into freerolls and micros but these forays will be ones which you handle with greater experience and confidence.