Somebody posted this on the other site, thought I'd link to
The age of average by Alex Murrell https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average
this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
256 points (95.1% liked)
Cars Australia
237 readers
4 users here now
A community for Australian Car Enjoyers, or just looking for information from other aussies.
Questions regarding purchasing, modifying, home servicing, show and tell, car porn, camping in their 4x4, etc
Usual aussie.zone rules apply.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Just to build on that a bit, I think it's more so that resale value is considered higher because more people today aren't trying to be as colorful as previous decades.
You see it in clothing, too, which people aren't buying with the intention to resell. 1980's clothing was a lot more colorful and flashy. In winter, everyone had those colorful windbreakers and ski jackets. Today, when I go out during winter and look at what kinds of coats people on the street are wearing, it's basically just a sea of mostly black and beige in various styles.
Oh, for sure. Trying to find my black coat on the coatrack at work is always a pain. I miss the fun colors of the 80s. Still a huge fan of that teal.
A Washington Post color analysis of D.C. found shades of gray permeate neighborhoods where the White population has increased and the Black population has decreased.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2025/gentrification-gray-changing-city-neighborhoods/
Obviously. White + black = gray.
(/s because I'm sure someone needs that for this.)
Looking at video games right now, which is one of the largest cultural touchstones of this age, I think that's going to change soon. Right now, there are so many games using vibrant colors. Two examples that come to mind are The Finals and the upcoming Marathon.
This style is different than the past though. It isn't color everywhere. It's mostly white (or other neutral color) with very vibrant accents. It's the style Mirror's Edge (many of the devs now work on The Finals) did so long ago, but it didn't stick. Now it looks like it's going to stick around for a little while at least.
To take it further - cities and towns. Most cities have a fairly dull color palette (browns and greys). There are of course exceptions to this but most people live in very bland, non-offensive environments from cars, to clothing, to the houses and office buildings where they live and work.
I've always wondered why humans both love color and are scared of it at the same time?
But clothes you mix and match. I got a pair of comfortable and flattering trousers so I got a pair more in a different colour. And it's a sort of grey green that I thought would be fine but somehow it clashes with almost everything I own.