When did “x is a thing” become, y’know, a thing?
OK, so my head is full of cold but I thought I could wander out into Twitter and ask something that was puzzling me, but it seems I might have asked it at the wrong time or the wrong place. I got back answers that made me think people didn't understand the question.
So there's a formulation that I've seen on Twitter and blogs that is: "X is a thing now" or "is X a thing? Really?". I suppose I've internally translated it as meaning "X is a meme now". Except that the formulation seems to have become a meme itself. And that's what I was trying to ask – when (where/how etc.) did saying that "X is a thing" which means that X has become a meme, become a meme?
Also what effect does capitalising "Thing" have? What's the difference (if any) between "We could make that a thing!" and "We could make that a Thing!"?
PS I'm not just asking the question because I want to know. I'm also interested in how you *can* answer questions like this. It's not something you can search for easily, nor does it seem to show up on Quora… yet.
Ooh a self referential meme. It’s like famous for being famous.