Bright colors are an effort to stand out from the crowd. That no longer a laudable goal; now we admire the safe middle of the herd. Don't be unique, don't be unusual, don't be noticed.
I think it's fine not to express ourselves through consumption.
That aside, neutral colours are just more practical. They're easier to match, easier to clean, and suit more occasions. It's more economical all around.
People who are self promoting on TikTok often wear garish makeup and clothing that they wouldn't wear on a bet in public. Its performance, and you get to do it "privately" in that no one watches you filming, usually. The public audience and risk of embarrassment is apart from the performance. "singing in the shower".
As one point of anecdata, my wife started doing TikTok videos recently to help promote her books. She puts on make up and wears cute bows in her hair for the videos. She rarely put on makeup and never wore bows in her hair before doing TikTok. And the bows come off as soon as she's done making the videos.
On the other hand I regularly see people in the street shooting videos, assumingly for TikTok judging by the way they act, in rather plain looking clothes. Which I'm now not sure anymore whether it proves any point or not :P
As per the Normcore Manifesto [1], refusing to try rebel when society encourages you to really is the greatest form of rebellion.
"If the rule is Think Different, being seen as normal is the scariest
thing...
Which paradoxically makes normalcy ripe for the überelites to adopt as their own, confirming their status by
showing how disposable the trappings of uniqueness are. The
most different thing to do is to reject being different all together.
When the fringes get more and more crowded, Mass Indie turns
toward the middle. Having mastered difference, the truly cool
attempt to master sameness."
