The discontinuous usage intention of short video social media presents an ongoing challenge to platform development. This study aims at accessing the effects of both overload on short video users’ discontinuous usage intention. Based on the Stressor-Strain-Outcome (SSO) framework and Self-Efficacy theory, this study constructs a discontinuous usage intention model and puts forward the corresponding research hypothesis. The study adopted the positivist epistemology and quantitative approach. Primary data were gathered through a 7-Likert scale questionnaire conducted among 386 Douyin users in China based on s snowball sampling. Furthermore, the data collected were analyzed by testing 8 hypotheses using SPSS 27 and SmartPLS 4. The quantitative analysis proved that all three types of overload—system feature overload, information overload, and social overload positively impact dissatisfaction, which is, in turn, found to significantly positively impact discontinuous usage intention. Self-efficacy significantly moderates the relationship between dissatisfaction and discontinuous usage intention. The study would contribute to uncovering a critical area to fill up the literature gap of influence factors on discontinuous usage intention in the context and give suggestions to users and short video platforms operator.