New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- It's usually in the nature of Indian Uncles (and Aunties) to dismiss Gen Z (born 1997-2012) as self-centred, distractible and addicted to the internet-compulsively doomscrolling through their social media feeds all day, and then complaining of anxiety. News media outlets in India recently stepped in as proxy for similar avuncular moral guardians as Nepal went up in flames. "Gen Z protests against social media ban" became a simplified, catch-all headline trend to describe an event that had its origins in a long-simmering brew of dissatisfaction: a corrupt regime, staggering unemployment, and a bleak future for the country's youth.

Doomscrolling has a bad rep, and rightly so. It was Oxford English Dictionary's word o...