Peter Olcott wrote:

I bought a new ViewSonic VA2226w monitor and text on the
screen appears more blurry than on my conventional aspect
ratio ViewSonic monitor. Is this because the 1680 x 1050
widescreen aspect ratio?

No.
The image will be sharpest running at the native resolution with a digital signal input.
If you are using an analog signal check the auto adjust function.
If you are running at non native resolution you might be able to adjust the sharpness with the on screen display settings.

--
Mike Walsh