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BACKGROUND: Information literacy always matters in the digital era. Upsurging research has been conducted about how information literacy influences their learning and capabilities development. However, previous literature has reached inconclusive and even conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: The present study investigates the underlying mechanism whereby the information literacy of using social media influences students' cross-cultural social adjustment and their creativity. Further, the research explores the moderating role of personality of extraversion on students' cross-cultural social adjustment. METHODS: A quantitative research methodology was adopted to survey international students studying at 43 Chinese public universities. Data collected from 2058 samples from 135 countries was used to test the hypothesized statements. RESULTS: Information literacy of using social media is confirmed to positively influence students' cross-cultural social adjustment and creativity. Contrary to the hypothesized statement, personality of extraversion negatively moderates the relationships between two dimensions of information literacy of using social media and students' cross-cultural social adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: International students rely more heavily on IL than domestic students, which should arouse more scholarly attention since no conclusive findings have been reached. How, by whom and where to use such an important skill could generate positive effects on human development deserves continuous efforts in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]