With increasing concerns about problematic social media use, self-control is expected to become an effective approach for excessive users to decrease possible harm for their well-being. This article explores the current literature on the conceptualization of self-control on social media. For this, 25 papers from seven academic databases were analyzed in the chronological order in a systematic literature review. The sequence of applied frameworks demonstrates a gradual switch from theories of planned behavior to theories justifying non-planned behavior and self-control failures. This finding explains the emphasis of recent studies on the impulsive behavior of excessive social media users and the application of dual-system theories. However, research design of selected articles included mainly self-report tools to investigate impulsive self-control failures which may result in contradictory findings and deficient theoretical grounding for self-control interventions. All investigated papers claim a negative impact of social media self-control failures on personal well-being.

Drawing on dual‐system theories, this study shows that excessive social media users demonstrate a psychological imbalance between the impulsive and reflective systems in their minds. We provide empirical evidence of an inconsistency between conscious attitudes and the actual behavior toward social media. The findings show that excessive users are driven more by their implicit attitudes rather than explicit beliefs in consuming social media. Although a high level of self‐control indicates healthy social media use, the findings suggest that self‐control has no significant influence on excessive users with a positive implicit attitude and high‐impulsive social media use. This duality of self‐control dispels beliefs about its ability to regulate excessive online behaviors. Therefore, this study (1) theorizes what constitutes excessive social media use, (2) outlines how implicit measurements are incorporated in consumer research, and (3) offers practical implications for managing unhealthy online behaviors.

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