The Future of Social Media?
[The assumption of a Pulitzer Prizewinning author appears below…]

Bennie had never used the word ‘parrot’; since the bloggescandals, the term had become an obscenity. Even the financial disclosure statements that political bloggers were required to post hadn’t stemmed the suspicion that people’s opinions weren’t really their own.

But Alex had promised Bennie fifty parrots to create ‘authentic’ word of mouth for Scotty Hausmann’s first live concert, to be held in Lower Manhattan next month. 

Using his handset, he began devising a system for selecting potential parrots from among his 15,896 friends. He used three variables: how much they needed money (‘Need’), how connected and respected they were (‘Reach’), and how open they might be to selling that influence (‘Corruptibility’).
– Jennifer Egan, 
    A Visit From the Goon Squad, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize