‘No headphones, no movie, no water’: Why some travellers are ‘raw dogging’ on flights

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 him sitting and staring silently while on a plane.

“Just rawdogged 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 him 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 character Sam Nelson, played by Idris Elba, on the Apple TV+ series Hijack

In the thriller series, the character had to endure a tense seven-hour flight from Dubai to London after the plane he was in was 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 things these days in a doom scrolling 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.”

@oiwudini

🧘🏻‍♂️ #fyp

♬ The Only Thing They Fear Is You - De8ed

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.