How do you while away the hours on a long flight? Read a book, watch the in-flight entertainment, listen to a podcast or scroll through your phone? Well, a new travel trend does away with all of that.
Welcome to “rawdogging”, but not as you know it. This bizarre new trend originated with young men on the internet who eschewed all forms of in-flight entertainment and decided to simply stare out the window or sit with their thoughts for the duration of their flight. This means no films, music, sleep, headphones, snacks or distractions once you’re seated. Alternative names for this meditative experience include “bareback” and “flying raw.”
In May 2024, a TikTok user with the handle @westwashere went viral when he posted about his decision to forgo any entertainment and pass a seven-hour trip watching the flight map. “Anyone else bareback flights?” he asked in the caption. Similarly, another man with the handle @oiwudini got 1.3 million likes on a video where he bragged about travelling on a seven-hour flight without headphones, sleep or other creature comforts.
This led to many more users posting TikToks of "rawdogging" flights; women have since caught up with the trend, too. TikTok user @wunderfullymichelle noted how few of her fellow passengers seemed to be watching anything other than the flight map during a five-hour trip from New York to San Francisco. “I have never seen so many people raw-dogging a flight in my life,” she wrote. “Literally just staring straight ahead the entire time?”
Even celebrities got in on the trend. American actor Jerry O’Connell posted a photo to his Instagram account with the caption, “Phone is out of battery. No TV. Gonna Raw-Dog this flight.”
Internet users have discussed the finer points of “rawdogging” such as whether watching the in-flight map, going to the bathroom and even accepting the free snacks onboard the flight breaks the rules of the trend or not. The challenge was an “insane dopamine detox” for one TikTok user, while one of the supposed benefits claimed by people who have “rawdogged” their flights is feeling refreshed mentally.
Whether you choose to “rawdog” your next flight or not, we hope you have an enjoyable time with zero turbulence.
(With inputs from multiple agencies)