Are Magnets Really Bad for a Computer?

Magnets are often portrayed as the bane of technology’s existence, especially in media where data must be scrubbed from devices through the use of a magnet. How true is this representation of the relationship between magnets and technology? We’ll examine this in today’s blog article.

Science Says Magnets Aren’t Necessarily the Problem

Scientifically speaking, magnets are not great for your computer or your smartphone. That much is indisputable. However, there are a lot of other factors in play, especially the duration of the exposure and the strength of the magnet.

Think about the weak magnets you use to pin your kids’ drawings up on the refrigerator. They are magnets, but they are nowhere near strong enough to cause measurable or permanent damage to any of your devices. Magnets in this context are generally designed to be as strong as they need to be, and no more, specifically so they don’t cause unforeseen issues.

If you want to cause some real damage to a device, you need the heavy-duty, industrial-sized magnets. They are the ones you need to watch out for.

How Dangerous Are Magnets to Your Technology?

If you aren’t working in an industry where you are constantly exposed to such technology, then you should have little to fear from magnets actually causing damage to your technology. Such magnets are often turned off when not in use, as well, as there is no need for them to be functional all the time.

Here’s a fun fact: magnets are actually a crucial part of your current workplace, as they are used in hard drives to read and write data. To put this into context, the aforementioned fridge magnets are nowhere near as powerful as the ones found in a hard drive, and solid state drives don’t utilize magnets at all. There is no chance that such weak magnets could ever damage your average business technology solutions unless you are trying VERY hard to mess things up.

Smartphones, though, are a different story. Smartphones are made with magnetic materials, and as such, are somewhat susceptible to issues from magnets, but problems should disappear after the exposure ceases. Smartphones don’t store data on magnetic disks like with hard drives, so if these devices are exposed to magnets, certain functionality could be disabled temporarily, but it’s not a permanent problem or even a remotely serious one. On the same token, so many smartphone accessories like smart keyboards, cases, and other peripherals use magnets, and don’t affect the longevity of the device at all. 

Ultimately, You Shouldn’t Really Worry That Much

All in all, the big thing to keep in mind regarding magnets is that you shouldn’t bring your technology around heavy-duty, powerful magnets. The average user has virtually no chance of suffering serious or permanent damage from your everyday magnet. Still, we will caution you against testing this yourself.

We hope you found today’s article interesting! Be sure to let us know what other topics you’d like covered in future blog articles.