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 😁

  • Default Username@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    18 hours ago

    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.