How magnets went from "computer poison" to being in everything

Published Aug 21, 2026, 10:15 AM EDT Sydney Butler is a technology writer with over 20 years of experience as a freelance PC technician and system builder and over a decade as a professional writer. He's worked for more than a decade in user education. On How-To Geek, he writes commerce content, guides, opinions, and specializes in editing hardware and cutting edge technology articles. Sydney started working as a freelance computer technician around the age of 13, before which he was in charge of running the computer center for his school. (He also ran LAN gaming tournaments when the teachers weren't looking!) His interests include VR, PC, Mac, gaming, 3D printing, consumer electronics, the web, and privacy. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Research Psychology with a minor in media and technology studies. His masters dissertation examined the potential for social media to spread misinformation. Outside of How-To Geek, he hosts the Online Tech Tips YouTube Channel, and writes for Online Tech Tips, Switching to Mac, and Helpdesk Geek. Sydney also writes for Expert Reviews UK. He also has bylines at 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, Tom's Hardware, MakeTechEasier, and Laptop Mag. Being born in the '80s and growing up with computers from the mid-80s and onward, some of the earliest computer lessons that were drilled into me involved a warning about magnets: keep them far away from any computer! Which is why, today, it still feels a little odd to me that the typical computer couldn't care less if there's a magnet around. In fact, some of my computers have magnets built into them to do something as simple as keep a laptop lid closed. So how did we get here, and why were magnets such a problem? Magnets used to be the mortal enemy of your computer Like magic, it could make your homework disappear Magnets were actually already in home computers like the IBM PC from the start. However, these were usually electromagnets, such as the ones inside hard drives and floppy drives, which could be turned on and off on command. That was the whole point, since these devices were used to modify magnetic particles to represent binary data. They also used permanent magnets, but either way, these reside inside the shielded metal cases of the drives. The PC speaker inside a computer had a permanent magnet too, but was inside the case and placed where it shouldn't be in a position to erase a floppy. We all used CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) screens as well, and a permanent magnet could really mess one of these screens up. The magnet would deflect the electron beams and cause distortion, and if you accidentally brought a permanent magnet too close, it could permanently create an issue with the screen's picture. Some monitors could "degauss" themselves effectively, but in some cases you had to call in a technician with a degaussing wand to fix your issue for a fee. Obviously, when sound cards came onto the scene, stereo speakers had to be special shielded units too, or they could potentially wipe a floppy that came too close, or cause issues with your CRT. Credit: Sydney Louw Butler/Shutterstock.com I was harshly reminded of this when I bought a cheap pair of speakers for my retro CRT PC gaming setup, only to realize that these little units were distorting my screen. Luckily, this Sun Microsystems monitor has a built-in degaussing option in its menus, because I don't think the guy with the wand is still around! Modern technology made magnets much less threatening They mostly shrug it off Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek To be fair, hard drives were never particularly sensitive to magnetism from random permanent magnets people might have on them. Maybe if you opened the drive up and applied the magnet to the platter surface directly, but at that point you've ruined the drive anyway, magnet or not. However, removable storage like SD cards, CD-ROM, USB SSDs, and USB flash drives aren't sensitive to magnets either. It was in fact getting tired of my computer science homework being erased in high school that I bought my first flash drive all the way back in 2002. A 64MB (yes, megaBYTE) thumb drive that cost more than a month's allowance. Likewise, an LED or OLED screen doesn't really care about magnets, because the principles these devices used to work aren't affected by the relatively weak magnetic fields of permanent magnets you're likely to have in your pocket. Your gadgets are now packed with magnets on purpose It's an attractive feature Credit: Sydney Louw Butler/How-To Geek Since CRTs and floppy disks are effectively not part of most people's computing life these days, it means that computer designers can use them to great effect. My MacBook Pro, for example, has a MagSafe power connector, where a strong magnet holds the power connection in place, but if someone trips over the cable it will let go safely. Likewise, there's a magnet in the lid of the laptop that keeps it closed, but is carefully designed to let go with the right amount of force. My tablet computer has a cover held on by magnets, and it uses them to know when the cover is open or closed. There are magnets in our game controllers (Hall Effect) that measure position. They are everywhere now and it's frankly awesome. Magnets aren’t harmless—they just threaten different things now The funny thing is, although the sorts of permanent magnets you typically find in a home won't do anything to hurt a modern computer, if you increase the strength of a magnetic field enough, it can still wreck your data. In fact, one of the tools made to permanently erase hard drives before disposal is called an "HDD degausser" and this bad boy will take the magnetic particles on a hard drive platter and rearrange them into pure static, like Thanos himself snapped the data out of existence. So it's not that magnets themselves have become totally harmless, it's just that modern computers and related devices like smartphones and tablets don't use technology affected by relatively weak magnetic fields. However, I would not recommend standing under one of those big junkyard electromagnets while holding your laptop. It's likely to take a brief, but decidedly one-way flight.