Social media tools such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, etc. have shifted the dynamics for how politics is portrayed and played out on the internet. These social media platforms have raised new questions about the participation of young adults in a democratic system. And these same platforms are lauded for spurring the involvement of young adults in using social media to share campaigns, create political content, express their support for a candidate, etc. Obama’s successful campaign was due to energizing and mobilizing supporters, particularly young adults, through social media platforms. Roughly 21 percent of online adults use social media platforms to get information about politics or get involved in the campaign. The use of the internet and social media platforms has completely changed how participating in politics and the democratic system can shape the perspective of many citizens.

Research Stats

Research has shown positive 25% of the participants from the US stated that social media platforms did have an impact on the transparency in their government. In Kenya, 70% of the Kenyan respondents believed that their government has increased transparency on their social media platforms. 59% of Nigerian citizens and 46% of Pakistanis claimed that social media platforms had a meaningful impact on government transparency. 

Internet and Politics

The internet has impacted politics in many ways. Social media platforms are where people get their news from, mostly before media houses. It is a medium that gives the easiest access to politics and other news. Also, social media platforms give citizens the chance to speak up about the lack of basic rights, their grievances as a citizen of the country, and demand for action to be taken.

• Government-enabled transparency. In any government, transparency is letting citizens or anyone affected by the decision-making of the government know about the process behind these actions. It is also one of the most powerful mechanisms to fight corruption. For instance, Ecuador recently allowed for free access to public information to citizens as their fundamental rights enabled through e-government. This means that citizens of Ecuador can access a large amount of microdata available to them through any public institution.
• News source. TV news channels and online news services are in competitioncompete with the latter getting more responses. A Pew Research study from the year 2016 estimated that 62% of the adults get their news on social media. The fast spread of information on social media can impact perception about political figures with information that may or may not be true. This can either gain new followers for the political figure or it can damage his reputation.
• Crisis Communication. The coronavirus pandemic is just one example of how the public was constantly looking towards their government not just for direction, but also on how to cope. It is especially imperative for the government to The government must get the message out in a calm and professional mannercalmly and professionally because the wrong message could rile things up. This also means no using of exclamation points or all-caps in tweets or other social media platforms, rather official fonts that can convey messages in a controlled and reassuring way.
• Customized news source. Politics junkies can catch up to their news by customizing their RSS feeds, getting updates on their favorite topics or political figure at any time of the day. And that too in multiple formats. Internet users can also contribute their own thoughts on to any political discussions.
• E-democracy. A combination of electronic and democracy, e-democracy aims to promote democracy through information and communications technology. For instance, electronic voting has been introduced for citizens’ ease of access and to achieve common constitutional goals. All adult citizens are eligible to participate in the development and creation of law. 

To sum it up, the internet and its technology are being used to facilitate the political process in the government. Doing so may help to address concerns about the political system. The Internet can be used to keep citizens informed about issues and allow them to participate in the decision-making process along with the government with complete transparency. This makes having internet access an important criterion. For instance, having internet access from Xfinity internet packages will help citizens stay up to date with the goings-on in their government.

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Network Monitoring Tool

What is a Network Monitoring Tool? You guessed it right; it is software that allows you, as the name suggests, to monitor your network. As simple as that. For example, we have NetSpeedMonitor. NetSpeedMonitor is a lightweight software for your taskbar which enables you to monitor current upload and download speed all the time. Apart from this, it can also log your internet usage history which you can see in a text file whenever you want. It has a simple GUI, it’s easy to set up, it’s very customizable and above all these, It is completely FREE!! To download NetSpeedMonitor, Click here. In the next pop-up window click on x86 if your OS architecture is 32-bit or click on x64 if your OS architecture is 64-bit. It will automatically start downloading the tool. See the image below.

Installation Guide for Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 Users

Well, this software is not new, it was originally made for Windows 7 or lower version users. So, you can’t simply install it on Windows 10, you will have to tweak it a little. Just right-click on the setup file, click on Properties, click on the ‘Compatibility’ tab, check the box which says ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for:’, click on Apply, and then click on OK. Now try to run the setup and install it just like any other software you install. You can also see the steps from the screenshots.

Enabling It on The Taskbar

To enable it on your taskbar right-click on the taskbar (don’t right-click on any icon or pinned app), click on Toolbar and then click on NetSpeedMonitor. That’s it you have successfully installed it.

Now if it doesn’t show the current speed, right-click on it, click on ‘Configuration’, In the ‘Network Interface’ just try switching different options and find out which one is working for you. Also, Change the bitrate (the unit in which you would like to see the speed) to your liking. I personally use KiB/s. Click Apply and then OK. You can also play around with other settings if you like and customize it to your liking.

So, That’s all, Thank you for reading.

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How does a VPN affect your internet speed?

The impact of the Internet on Politics.

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VPN Servers

There are many VPN services available online that you can subscribe to for a minimal fee, as well as free VPN providers. The Guardian states that free VPNs are unreliable and slow. The reason free VPN services tend to be slower is that as the service is free, they tend to have fewer servers and a higher amount of users, therefore at busy times when there is a lot of web traffic, the VPN becomes congested, slowing the speed of the connection. The Guardian also suggests that by using a free service you cannot be sure who you are entrusting your data, as it could actually be criminals or the government posing as a VPN service provider.

Your geographical location and distance to VPN servers can also make a difference in the speed of your internet connection. For example, if you are in America and are trying to access a UK website provider through a UK server, this could cause a slight delay in the speed, as data has further to travel across the world wide web.

Encryption

Another reason that a VPN could slow your internet speed is the process of encrypting data. As everything that goes in and out of the connection needs to be coded or decoded, this takes a short amount of time which could mean you find that using the internet through a VPN could take longer than when you access the internet solely through your Internet Service Provider (ISP). In many cases, the VPN doesn’t give a chance to scammers to steal your personal information.

IP Cloaking

Your internet will only be as quick as your ISP’s bandwidth offering. If you are on an ISP’s highest bandwidth package, generally there is not much that you can do to increase internet speed, as there is no way of increasing the capacity of data being delivered at any one time. ISPs tend to try and control their customer’s access to websites such as video streaming through the process of bandwidth throttling. Bandwidth throttling slows the internet connection. ISPs do this to prevent people from accessing illegal content and to encourage customers to purchase faster and more expensive internet packages.

When accessing the internet through a VPN you are provided with a different IP address, meaning your identity is hidden from your ISP. All that your ISP can see is data traveling to and from the VPN servers in code. This means that when accessing the internet through a VPN, ISP’s are unable to know when you are trying to access content that they wish to restrict and therefore cannot implement bandwidth throttling tactics. This can have an inadvertent effect on the speed of your internet when accessing certain content such as videos, meaning your internet connection could be quicker.

Firewalls

Strong firewalls are used by VPNs in order to prevent outside entities from hacking into your internet connection and disrupting your browsing. Some of these disruptions to browsing can be caused by pop-ups and spam. When you are trying to browse video content spam and pop-ups can slow down the speed at which you can view content, therefore firewalls on VPNs can help to speed up the connection of your internet by blocking pop-ups.

VPN Protocols

Different VPN services have different VPN protocols. Protocols determine the level of encryption that is used on your data. Newer protocols using newer technology tend to be more secure and harder to crack into as they use the latest technology. The stronger the encryption, the more time it takes to code, therefore, some protocols take longer, causing users’ internet connections to slow down. Most VPN providers use a variety of protocols and users should be able to select which works best depending on what level of security they require, balanced against the speed of their internet connection.

Devices

The BBC discussed findings from Ofcom’s most recent Communications Market Report which showed that people in the UK are increasingly owning mobile devices as opposed to desktops. They explored how the demand to remain connected via the internet whilst on the go has significantly increased, as well as what people are using mobile devices for. The number of calls made by mobile phones has significantly decreased over the last ten years, whereas using a mobile internet connection to stream online TV has massively increased. The focus for new technology is on mobile devices and therefore new mobile devices with the latest technology tend to work better with a VPN, as they can keep up quicker with the encryption of data than older desktops, that are using old technology. You may find that accessing the internet on your iPad through a VPN can speed up your internet connection, in comparison to when using your home desktop. Using a Proxy Store from the right resource can help you with better VPN usage.

With all of the above in mind, therefore, using a VPN could affect your internet speed positively or negatively depending on your individual requirements. It is important to remember that a VPN’s function is not to speed up your internet connection but to give you privacy on a secure connection. If you do find that a VPN is affecting your internet speed negatively, as discussed, there are several things you can do to limit its effects.

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