What is the 'rawdogging' travel trend taking over Tiktok?
Everybody has a different strategy for avoiding boredom during a lengthy journey – from consuming all the in-flight entertainment to getting rid of every pointless picture in your phone's gallery.
Now, there’s a new one to try out called rawdogging, and it requires absolutely nothing.
What is rawdogging?
The newest travel craze on TikTok demands that travellers sit silently and without screens throughout lengthy flights.
That implies no tablets, phones, music, movies, sleep, food, or other distractions while flying in the cabin.
In the Apple TV+ series Hijacked, Idris Elba's character Sam Nelson has been partially credited with starting the anti-indulgence movement. The 50-year-old must sit through a more than seven-hour flight from Dubai to London without any comforts after thieves take over his airbus in the anthology's seven episodes.
To put it mildly, the idea of taking a long-haul flight alone with our thoughts is terrifying for a lot of us.
However, some content producers market themselves as experts in this perplexing endurance art.
One user @oiwudini, a Manchester-based DJ and producer, wrote: “Just rawdogged a 7-hour flight (new personal best) no headphones, no movie, no water, nothing.
“Incredible. The power of my mind knows no bounds,” he added.
While another user @kareemrahma, a NY-based comedian, shared his own journey.
After an 11-hour flight, Jonny Davies @jdrunsfar shared his personal best on social media, referring to it as "raw dogging the flight map" and captioning it, "The only thing to watch whilst flying Virgin Atlantic."
This practice is neither novel nor cutting edge. It is the normal work of nuns and monks. For thousands of years, individuals of both Eastern and Western faiths have used this method to declutter their brains.
If you’re up for the challenge, it may help remove any outside distractions from your life so that you may focus on the things that really matter and consider your place in the world, both of which are beneficial pursuits.
