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Baby Boomers and the Use of a Specialized Fact-Checking Chatbot

Abstract:

Baby boomers are a population that evidences literacy needs about the implications of digital communication for human interactions. The lack of experience in decoding the interactions that occur in digital environments, as well as the various types of content distributed through the Internet, makes them more susceptible to assuming publications on the Internet as true, opening a significant risk toward misinformation that is much more specialized when it circulates in digital communities. The present research is based on the experience of the use of digital content of the baby boomer generation in the province of Loja in Ecuador, during the first period of the COVID-19 pandemic versus the interaction with a chatbot specialized in fact-checking. Focus groups were applied as a methodological strategy aimed at collecting the primary experiences of this population, complemented by participant observation. It was found that baby boomers experienced changes in media consumption habits, guided by a decrease in trust toward new systems, as well as the development of interest in learning about the use of digital systems, including those specialized in fact-checking. They expect these media to be user-friendly, simple and easy to access and to differentiate themselves from mass and digital media by delivering quality content.