I remember when I was growing up (decades ago), my dad instilled in me to never put a magnet up to a computer or TV because they would cause irreparable damage to the screen. While I’m sure that SOMEWHERE out in the world there’s a magnet strong enough to cause damage if given enough time or whatever, but in terms of what I can buy from a store, would it be safe to keep my cell phone and a magnet (say, one of those ‘clicking’ fidget toys with half a dozen or so small magnets) in the same pocket, or am I just asking for trouble?
Edit: Thank you everyone for all your answers! I now know far more than I expected to from this silly question 😁


A magnet can absolutely fuck up a color CRT beyond repair by causing an extreme misalignment of the shadow mask or aperture grille that even a degaussing wand can’t fix. It’d need to be a pretty powerful magnetic field, though. You’d basically have to try to mess it up.
Black and white CRTs are fine, though.