A Day in the Life of a Struggling Blogger
Posted on Wednesday, 28 October 2015
A
day in the Life of a Struggling Blogger
By Apolinario Villalobos
In countries like the United States,
bloggers have no problem because all they need to do is just go to a park, and
there, with free wifi connection, they can blog for as long as they want. But
not in a third-world country like the Philippines where the government’s
promise for free wifi sites in public places is part of nauseating propaganda
of the administration. A blogger has to have a landline for an assured strong
signal that can be sucked by a modem. An option is to have a USB broadband and
portable or pocket wifi which must be loaded. Lucky are the bloggers that can
connect to a neighbor with a repeater wifi that he can use, with consent of
course.
But for a struggling blogger who has no
landline to which a modem for wifi can be attached for a strong signal, or
cannot afford a post-paid plan for broadband or pocket wifi, there’s no other
choice but a load from a corner store bought for 50pesos which is good for one
day. As soon as the load has been registered, the blogger must get to work
immediately to maximize the use for the allotted time. The problem is the weak
signal, especially, if several blog sites have to be opened for uploads. During
unfortunate days with a weaker signal, uploading may take the whole day,
instead of the normal four to five hours. During those days the indicator for a
successful connection would just turn round and round, almost infinitely.
There are times when blogs which are thought
to have been uploaded successfully are trashed due to incompleteness of
attempt. Other times, due to the weak signal, uploading process hangs. And,
worst, is when the signal is cut off in the middle of uploading!
What aggravates the situation are the promo
offerings of servers, enticing internet users to buy their cheap surfing
package which are deemed useless because, even until the purchased load has
been consumed, no connection has been made! It is like rubbing salt to the
wound.
The National Telecom time and again has
expressed it s disgust over the inutility of the service of the different
Philippine-based servers, but just like the mumblings of other government
agencies for show, nothing has been done which is a clear defiance on the part
of the servers, an obvious loss of respect to the government. Meanwhile, the internet
users suffer, especially, struggling poor bloggers. And, just to assure a
little bit of strong signal, bloggers of this kind have to do the uploading in
the wee hour of 3AM!
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