Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Monday, October 20, 2014

Something

When did when did this become a thing become a thing?

2 comments:

jimf said...

> [W]hen did this 'become a thing' become a thing?

http://www.quora.com/When-and-where-did-the-phrase-its-like-a-thing-now-originate
---------------
Satvik Beri, Human After All

"It's like a thing now" is really just another way of saying
"It's a thing", which mostly became popular in 2007 according
to Google Trends. Here "a thing" means something popular/part
of pop culture. For example, Vine is a thing now. Ponies are
a thing. Big Data is a thing. Netflix was a thing for a while,
then became not a thing as a lot of their content disappeared
and they lost a lot of steam in late 2011, but it's becoming
a thing again thanks to House of Cards and Arrested Development.

Facebook would not be considered a thing-it's too old. A thing
has to be recent enough to be in peoples' consciousness. People
may use Facebook all the time, but they don't talk about it as
much as they used to.

Path was a thing for a while last year, but it seems to have faded.
====

Dale Carrico said...

I always assumed the pedigree included the Next Big Thing... but in the negative form now prevalent (how can this still be a thing? when did this become a thing? etc) the "thingness" seems ontologically different than the thing that was the Next Big one. I dunno.