'Where did my files go?': Broken computer memes for all tech experts wanting to quit their jobs and never touch a computer again

Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer

Sep 29, 2026 7:00 AM EDT

You're at the office, sending emails and filling an Excel spreadsheet when suddenly, boom! Everything gets accidentally deleted, and your work disappears… Wonderful moment to call the IT department.

Technology can't always be as reliable as we would like, and in those moments, all we want to do is throw our devices against the floor and go back to doing everything with pen and paper. At least with those, all the mistakes we had to worry about were ours. With these modern devices, we have to make sure they don't crash out at a random moment without saving all our work. I'm starting to sound like my grandmother here, but I know I'm right. The risk of losing every file is too big. We would have to do it all over again from scratch, and we refuse to be overworked.

I know that computers, AI, and other tools have more than helped speed up processes and made some people's jobs easier, and that's great! Not that it has ever helped me, but that's a whole other issue. When it comes to technology, I'm at a loss completely. That's exactly why I'm the perfect person to explain how frustrating it is when our computers don't do what we want them to do. The files don't get saved, or if they do, they're impossible to find. Everything starts functioning like the Internet took a vacation in the nineties, and you have to sit there waiting for it to deign to work. Seriously, sometimes I wish I could use a typewriter. Not that I have ever used one in my life, but it sounds less problematic, not to mention more romantic. My grandmother knew how to use a typewriter; maybe I should ask her to teach me.

Either way, even though tech can play against us sometimes, it is mostly helpful (for my dismay). So, in order to not make the machines angry, we dedicate these memes to them and all IT departments! They won't make your computer turn back on again, but they sure will make you laugh.