Jack Foster, 53, a Manhattan real estate broker who joined the profession after running a tax preparation service, was upset to learn from a teenage nephew Monday of the ever-evolving nature of the Internet.
Foster only recently accepted that “pinning things,” on an electronic “board” could possibly be of use to him as a residential sales broker.
So he was dismayed to hear of Instagram, not only because he was unclear as to what a “filter” was, but because he learned from his nephew he would need to use it exclusively on his mobile device, an aging Kyocera.
As the nephew, 13-year-old Jeremy Foster, tried in vain to explain why one “gram” was so much “sicker” than another on the photo-based social network, the elder Foster was seen holding his head in his hands and, later, angrily typing on the 2009-issue Kyocera.
“I’ve learned to use the Facebook, and I tweet about once a quarter – this is all I can handle,” said the father of two, who lives in Astoria, Queens, but works mostly on the Upper East Side. “Who wants to see the view from a third-story walk-up on York Avenue anyway? Who are we kidding?”
Foster also recently made the switch to Gmail, but soon after, the formatting of the popular Google-run email platform changed, rendering him unable to use it for about a week. Just as he was regaining his technological footing, Facebook also changed its format.
“And now this!” he said, referring again to Instagram.
Foster’s family members were said to be warning his neighbors and associates to avoid all mention of the popular new video sharing platform Vine.
(Happy April Fools’ Day! The above story is entirely fictional and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)