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Why is the world losing color?

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171–180 of 309 posts

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#171
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well hey, if that's his style, and he can find the confidence to "own" it, the right kind of girl will appreciate him for it. (As long as it's not too outlandish of a sock combo, ha)

As adults that is true, but in high school perceived peer pressure is important and so most kids act like their peers. (there are a number of different groups in most schools and they are not a like, but you pick yours and belong to it)

It's true as a kid too, it's just that a lot of kids haven't learned the lesson yet. One of the most important lessons you can learn when you're young is to disregard peer pressure.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#172

It's not "losing" color. At periods when technology resulted in new color possibilities, people went overboard with color. Make all the things colorful!! Think of the technicolor sixties. And we can go back in history and see the same thing with new clothing pigments, new paint pigments. But when everything is colorful, nothing stands out. Everything being colorful is as monotonous as everything being, well, monotone…

> At periods when technology resulted in new color possibilities, people went overboard with color. Make all the things colorful!! Think of the technicolor sixties. And we can go back in history and see the same thing with new clothing pigments, new paint pigments. Based purely on intuition, I want to agree with you. However, the data in the article suggests there's been a fairly consistent decrease in color of media…

Geocities were explosion of color.

Also, pop art.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#173

It's not "losing" color. At periods when technology resulted in new color possibilities, people went overboard with color. Make all the things colorful!! Think of the technicolor sixties. And we can go back in history and see the same thing with new clothing pigments, new paint pigments. But when everything is colorful, nothing stands out. Everything being colorful is as monotonous as everything being, well, monotone…

I'd rather movies and TV shows look more realistic than washed-out, unless there is a good stylistic reason for it.

Same.

Sensory overload argument is particularly painful here, because it's essentially saying that the one thing you and me want to look colorful - the entertainment we choose - is doomed to be washed out because the stuff we don't want to see - advertising - has to overdo stimulus to catch attention.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#174

Wow, so much to rage about from the article. I am a huge fan of color and go out of my way to buy bright colored cars, phones, etc. (Not like I had any viable options for my MacBook Pro though). Resale value, it hides dirt well are some of the sadder excuses I hear for buying gray and "silver" cars (wouldn't be cool if they really were silver, not "metallic gray"). Meanwhile you spend your entire time owning the car…

Another thing that might also play a role is this styling trend of vehicles looking "meaner" and more and more aggressive. This was discussed[1] a bit on HN a while ago. Bright colors don't really match the "My vehicle is going to punch you in the face" styling (for cars and especially trucks) that has become popular. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32425520

I'd say farm equipment has embraced the same "meaner" trend, but has also doubled down on bright, vibrant colours.

Noticeably, though, the colours don't date the equipment. 20 years ago the colours were the same, and 20 years from now it is very likely that the brand new ones will still feature the same colours still.

That hasn't been the case for passenger vehicles. They are famous for having a colour available this year and gone the next, so if you have one of those no-longer-available colours it sticks out like a sore thumb as looking old. Which is what I believe the consumer truly fears – owning a car that looks old and dated.

The blacks and whites have remained consistently available, so it is far less risky.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#175
post #80

Part of this that affects me is interior decorations in the age of RGB LED lighting. If your home interior is white, you can cast any color onto it from an RBG light, but if your interior paint has a non-greyscale hue, coloring it with LED lights produces unexpected results that are inconsistent with other areas of the house that are painted other colors. Another part that affects me is being colorblind. When I was i…

My son (11 years old) always wears mismatched socks. Even when we match them in his drawer he will unmatch them (we no longer bother). I'm not sure if style has changed or he just isn't old enough to care what girls think.

Or he thinks girls like it. That he looks more cool than other boys like that.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#176

It's not "losing" color. At periods when technology resulted in new color possibilities, people went overboard with color. Make all the things colorful!! Think of the technicolor sixties. And we can go back in history and see the same thing with new clothing pigments, new paint pigments. But when everything is colorful, nothing stands out. Everything being colorful is as monotonous as everything being, well, monotone…

What does your desktop look like?

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#177
post #49

One interesting thread here is the long shadow of Greek and later Roman statuary and architecture on Western European self image - the marble statues, columns, and architecture of the Roman empire were taken as the origin story for Western culture - "we were an empire built on philosophers and artists, and look at the (gleaming white) purity of their works." It turns out, of course, that all those gleaming white stat…

> the Greeks and Romans were not cultures of conformity or austerity - quite the opposite, but the seeds of the philosophy sank in hard, and here we are. I don’t think anyone thinks they were. They are usually assumed to be hedonistic in popular culture

Kids are taught about them as about super serious no fun civilizations. Then I associate it woth fetishisation of military conquest and such.

I would see God's as hedonistic but not greeks. Honestly, my bias is that they were very boring amd sort of artificial.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Modern taste is more about more neutral-colored foundations with color accents. Don't paint a whole room green -- have a gorgeous green plant that stands out all the more against its neutral background. Don't paint a whole wall orange -- have a beautiful orange-hued piece of art on the wall. It's just more tasteful to use color as one element, along with size, shape, texture, and so forth. I don't consider this to…

The drained-color thing is exclusive to a certain type of TV/movie drama, and then also a serious technical problem involving HDR device-side (which is a whole other story). But if you watch any comedy, or reality show, or plenty of "normal" dramas, on a regular TV, the color is normal. However, yes, there has been a certain trend involving Christopher Nolan, "gritty realism", and legal-political-military-crime theme…

> The drained-color thing is exclusive to a certain type of TV/movie drama

It's not. There's even a term coined for it, "intangible sludge". https://www.vox.com/culture/22840526/colors-movies-tv-gray-d...

> I don't like it much but you can also just not watch that stuff.

It's now permeated everything, so it's hard to not watch stuff, as it's everywhere, with few exceptions.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#179
post #10

Gen Z is rejecting this "millennial bland" aesthetic of turning all spaces into an Apple store. Just one reason I appreciate and look forward to the coming generation. Take a look at some of their trends in art, music, fashion, graphic design... plenty of color to be found.

As an elder millennial, words cannot express how much I despise "Millennial Gray." When I was househunting for my current house, it was depressing how much was out there, because a brand-new gray kitchen, bath, or floor is an absolute dealbreaker for me. Paint I can paint over, but yuck.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#180
post #21

For me, it is very apparent in movies nowadays. I watched the Lord of the Rings over Christmas, and I was stunned by how colorful the movie is. Even in the darkest scenes in Mordor, it felt more colorful than movies of today. Today, it looks like everything is shot in log and then someone does not add the saturation back. But I am also guilty of this .. when I got my new camera, my graded clips also looked very flat,…

And for a brief moment I stopped to think about whether we're looking at a horrible middle earth hallmark movie or just some 'clever' parody.
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