Behavioral Persona
| Name of persona:
Golfer Gary |
Project | Team 10 – Claire Muscat |
| Role | Recently graduated student-athlete (golfer) working at the mall | |
| Goal | Wants to reduce screen time after seeing friends’ lower screen timer → social pressure
Wants to use time for more productive things such as reading |
|
| Motivation | Feels like he’s wasting time on social media
Feels called out / judged by friends with lower screen time |
|
| Conflict | A lot of downtime at work + ease of use makes it hard to get out of the habit of overuse
Short-form content is SO easy to consume → there’s always more |
|
| Attempts to Solve | Tried to reduce screen time during golf season by turning phone off while at practice or tournaments (normally would go on phone while waiting or walking the course). Saw lower screen time in general, but only lasted during golf season → when season ended, phone usage / social media usage went back up to normal levels | |
| Setting/ Environment | Often go on it at work during downtime (majority of time)
Sometimes go on at home or in car when waiting for people Would go on during round of golf / in-between holes |
|
| Tools | Accountability with other friends
Turning phone off Deleting app |
|
| Skills | Having alternative ways to spend time → like reading a book | |
| Routines | Downtime at work between customers
Waiting for people Check notifs when waking up / before sleeping |
|
| Habits | Scroll when bored and scroll until bored or tired
Sending and receiving funny videos Feeling bad about using social media so much |
The persona that I created is Golfer Gary, a recently graduated student-athlete now working at a sports simulator shop in a local mall. Gary spends a lot of time on his phone – about 8 hours a day – and after discussing with friends (who spend way less time on their phones), he really wants to make an effort to lower his screen time through reducing the amount of time spent on social media apps, namely TikTok and Instagram. This persona and journey map tell the relatable story of a young person grappling with the addictive nature of social media and his desire to break out of a habitual cycle of always going for his phone during down time and getting lost in extended scrolling sessions.
The journey map highlights five different points during Golfer Gary’s day:
- When he wakes up in the morning
- When he gets ready for the day
- When he is at work
- When he is hanging out with friends post-work
- When he is getting ready to sleep
At each point, the map pinpoints his actions, goals and experiences, feelings and thoughts, opportunities, and pain points in an effort to better understand the underlying drivers and feelings surrounding his use of social media to better inform potential interventions.
