Currently, it seems everyone’s got a raw dog on this in-flight fight.
Air travel optimizers have sworn by the most recent bizarre trend to penetrate airplane culture — raw dogging — wherein passengers endure a long-haul flight with nothing but their thoughts to maintain them occupied. The advantages of forced boredom, nonetheless, are still up for debate.
The provocative term has flown off the social media charts this summer as clout-chasing travelers — mostly men — tout having spent half a dozen hours or more in silence on an airplane in a show of physical discipline and mental stamina.
“Just raw-dogged a 7-hour flight (recent personal best),” Wudini, a UK DJ, bragged to his audience in a TikTok post with over 13.2 million views. “No headphones, no movie, no water, nothing.”
“Incredible,” he added. “The ability of my mind knows no bounds.”
Seven hours is child’s play to Instagram user Damon Bailey, who shared his personal best,13-and-a-half hours between Shanghai and Dallas, with none type of entertainment.
“It’s quite tough, truthfully,” the 34-year-old from Miami, Florida told BBC News — though he has no plans to stop, he added. “I just like the challenge, of course.”
Even bona fide athletes are doing it, including Manchester City soccer star Erling Haaland, who boasted his “easy” seven-hour streak with “no phone, no sleep, no water, no food.”
Proponents of raw dogging have suggested the phenomenon was inspired by Idris Elba’s character, Sam Nelson — who withstands an almost eight-hour flight from Dubai to London without amenities after crooks commandeer his plane — on the Apple TV+ series “Hijacked.”
Despite Elba’s enviable status as an on-screen hero, critics of raw dogging IRL have shamed the “psychopathic” practice as some experts have warned against the hazards of sleep, food and water deprivation on planes. The dry in-flight environment causes dehydration inside and outside, which is why it’s so necessary to remain hydrated amid air travel, based on travel experts who recently spoke to Every day Mail, adding that there’s also no sense in abstaining from snacks or sleep in case your body is telling you it needs those essentials.
Nonetheless, there’s an upside to this ascetic air travel trend — through the lens of mindfulness. Business psychologist Danielle Haig claimed could provide “a chance to recharge mentally, gain recent perspectives,” she told the BBC.
Haig believes interest in raw dogging suggests “a collective craving for balance as people seek to reclaim their mental space and foster a deeper reference to their inner selves.”
Relatedly, psychology scholar Sandi Mann, writer of “The Science of Boredom,” argues that long stints of silence might be thing for those of us who spend our days watching screens.
“We want to scale back our need for novelty and stimulation and whizzy-whizzy bang-bang dopamine, and just take day out to breathe and stare on the clouds — literally, when you’re on a flight,” Mann told the BBC.
She conceded, nonetheless, that overzealous raw-doggers might experience diminishing returns: “This is just not ideal for a second-hour flight.”
