‘No headphones, no movie, no water’: Why some travellers are ‘raw-dogging’ on flights
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Travellers are challenging themselves to go without entertainment, food and sleep on flights.
PHOTOS: TORRENFOOT AND CHARLIE_SUTHERLAND/TIKTOK
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Can you survive a flight without your phone, music and movies?
Travellers are going viral for challenging themselves to go without entertainment, food and sleep on long-haul flights.
The latest travel trend involves passengers cutting out distractions like in-flight entertainment during their journey to reach a zen status.
Some have taken it further by depriving themselves of food, drink and sleep for the entirety of the flight.
In some cases, bathroom visits are allowed.
Social media users have jumped on the phenomenon to test their mental strength, even sharing their personal best records of “raw-dogging”.
TikTok user @Oiwudini racked up 13.5 million views for filming himself sitting and staring silently while on a plane.
“Just raw-dogged a seven-hour-long flight. No headphones, no movie, no water, nothing. The power of my mind knows no bounds,” the Manchester-based DJ and producer wrote.
Another TikTok user, @TorrenFoot, celebrated his 15-hour-long “raw-dogging” achievement with a video of himself stuck in deep thought on a plane. The post has racked up 1.4 million views.
He wrote: “Just raw-dogged it. 15-hour flight to Los Angeles. No music, no movies, just flight map. My new personal record.”
According to the New York Post, the trend is loosely based on the experience of the character Sam Nelson, played by Idris Elba, on the Apple TV+ series Hijack (2023).
In the thriller series, the character has to endure a tense seven-hour flight from Dubai to London after the plane he is in is hijacked.
The endurance challenge has been met with mixed reactions by netizens.
Some have likened the ascetic practice to meditation.
“I enjoy flights without distractions and use it to my advantage. I can watch my thoughts and reflect on life. A rare thing these days in a doomscrolling culture,” wrote user @soulmanyogi on a Reddit thread.
Another Reddit user @kobeng13 wrote: “I used to have really bad flight anxiety and this is essentially what I would do. Completely dissociate from reality for my flight.”
But others were sceptical of the social media phenomenon.
X user wrote @shoegazegf420: “People who raw-dog flights without headphones, a book or movie and sit there eyes open for hours are not human to me.”
“I will never raw-dog a flight. Absolute psychos,” wrote X user @realestatejayz.
