North Carolina School Removes Mirrors To Stop Students From Filming TikToks

Teachers all around the world know how frustrating it can be when their students are distracted by their phones in class. In an effort to combat this frustration, a North Carolina middle school has decided to remove its bathroom mirrors to prevent students from recording TikToks.

Southern Alamance Middle School in Graham, North Carolina announced last week that the mirrors would be removed from all student bathrooms to cut down on distractions. The reasoning behind this unorthodox decision was due to the overwhelming number of students using the mirrors to make TikTok videos during class hours.

According to WFMY, the average number of bathroom trips students would make recently shot up from three to four times a day, to eight and even nine times. And the online history of the students shows them very blatantly spending their time in the bathroom recording TikTok videos instead of, y'know, doing normal bathroom stuff.

With the social media app playing such a huge role in distracting students, the school system decided it was time for action.

In an interview with WFMY, the school system's public relations officer Les Atkins (no relation) noted that the removal of bathroom mirrors was already helping them in their battle against social media in the classroom.

"(There's) not as many visits to the bathroom, (they're) not staying as long, and students are held accountable," says Atkins, "and when there's accountability, you see a great difference."

This is all in an effort to teach students what the school calls "digital citizenship", which is a fancy way of saying, "save the dance moves for your own bathroom mirror. You're here to learn, not to CitiRokk."

The decision may seem drastic to some, but I think the school is actually doing these students a favor. I shudder to think of the cringy stuff my middle school self would've been posting had TikTok been a thing back then. I promise you the whole world did NOT need to see 12-year-old KC's awkward pubescent limbs trying to crank that Soulja Boy.

Suzanne Somers died yesterday (October 15) at age 76. She was, of course, known for acting in hit shows like Three's Company and Step By Step, but she also became ubiquitous thanks to the ThighMaster.

The iconic piece of fitness equipment is one of many items that took off thanks to infomercials. These "As Seen On TV" items range from the aforementioned fitness products, to kitchen gadgets, to cleansers and everywhere in between.

While infomercials aren't as prevalent as they were in the '80s, '90s and 2000s, there's still a large market for outside-the-box, unique items. In fact, many "As Seen On TV" items we all know and love from decades past are still around. For some of these items, their popularity grew to the point that they're now sold in stores the world over.

Here are ten of the most iconic "As Seen On TV" items. We bet you have at least one of these in your home!

The ThighMaster was a pop culture phenomenon and a massive cash cow for Suzanne Somers, the star of the product's infomercial. She shared on the Hollywood Raw podcast in 2022 that about 15 million ThighMasters were sold. Somers also noted, "We had partners—50/50—and they got drunk on money when it all started selling. They overspent to the point where they could no longer afford to be in their side of the business so we bought them out. We have 100%."

The Magic Bullet was marketed as the end-all, be-all product you just had to have for your kitchen. It also had one of the strangest infomercials of all time, as examined by Gabi Belle

"Set it and forget it!" Ron Popeil was an infomercial icon helping sell countless items, including the Pocket Fisherman and the Veg-O-Matic. However, few products truly captured the zeitgeist of late '90s/early 2000s informercials quite like the Showtime Rotisserie Oven.

It's a blanket with arms! Honestly, The Snuggie is the perfect item that walks the line between stupid and brilliant. However you feel about The Snuggie, its creators at Allstar Products Group laughed their way to the bank. Per CNBC, over 30 million Snuggies have been sold since its launch in 2008 netting the company over $500 million.

How successful was the George Foreman Grill? According to Yahoo, the boxing legend made at least $250 million from the product, which is way more than he ever made in his boxing career. In total, over 100 million George Foreman Grill products have been sold.

Proactiv is now readily available in a variety of stores, but it got its start as an "As Seen On TV" product. It's had many celebrity spokespeople/endorsements, including Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Diddy and Kendall Jenner. However, its first celebrity spokesperson was Judith Light.

Can you believe the Chia Pet has been with us since 1977?! (We were shocked it's been around for that long, too!) Between its general absurdity and its infectious catchphrase ("Ch-ch-ch-chia!"), no wonder the Chia Pet has had such longevity.

Late pitchman Billy Mays helped introduce the world to the wonder that is OxiClean, beginning with infomercials that first launched in 2000. Now, there are a variety of OxiClean products that are available in stores everywhere.

There has never been a fitness personality quite like Richard Simmons, so of course, he'd create at-home aerobics videos that millions fell in love with. In total, there are five installments of Simmons' Sweatin' to the Oldies series. Many of the workouts are now available on his YouTube channel.

The "Flex" items can apparently do it all! Regardless of whether you purchased any of the "Flex" items, there's a good chance you've seen ample memes about them, specifically "Flex" Tape.