A STRANGE new travel trend is emerging among internet users – and it has an even worse sounding name.
If you were to hear of someone “raw-dogging” a flight, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s something that should get them kicked off the plane.
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However, it turns out to be something a lot less explicit than its title might suggest.
Instead of being anything gross or unpleasant for other passengers on board, those who “raw dog” their flights are passengers who simply choose to endure their trip without any entertainment.
Whether it’s watching films on the plane’s seatback system, listening to music on personal headphones, or even reading a book, passengers are eschewing it all for the new trend.
Why they’re doing this remains to be properly explained, but there doesn’t seem to be any discernible benefit or joy to be had from it.
Rather, it seems to be something of an endurance test, to see who can go the longest without wishing to reduce the boredom of being on a plane for a long haul journey.
One person very proud of their efforts was a man who claimed to have hit a new personal best with a seven-hour flight.
A picture of the man was shared on social media, including Instagram, where @trashcanpaul posted it for his followers.
The picture shows the passenger looking straight ahead on a plane with the caption: “Just raw dogged a seven hour flight (new personal best).
“No headphones, no movie, no water, nothing. Incredible.
“The power of my mind knows no bounds.”
Others claimed to have done even longer journeys in the comments, with one writing: “Raw dogged one from LAX to Tokyo. Haven’t been the same since, stepped off that plane a different person.”
Another wrote: “My record is 12.5 hours raw dogged on a plane.”
A third added: “Just did that with my 12 hour flight and I think I can hear colours.”
The phrase seems to have first been used on X, formerly Twitter, back in 2022, when user @blackprints wrote: “The dude next to me on the plane just absolutely raw dogged this entire flight.
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“He got on a TEN HOUR FLIGHT to Europe in jeans, no headphones, no book, no neck pillow, literally just a paper cup of coffee without a lid, like sir are you okay?”
People responded saying the man was a “psychopath” and suggesting he had “insane energy”.
Another claimed they had to prepare for a flight “like I’m getting kicked out of my house” by bringing all their belongings with them.
The term does originally have a sexual connotation, according to Urban Dictionary, who claim that raw-dogging was originally used to describe having sex without protection.
However, the meaning has now evolved to mean doing any activity without necessary preparation that others might consider to be essential.
It was also used recently in relation to an entertainment-free flight by Instagram user Damion Bailey, who shared a video of himself simply watching the map on his personal TV, with the caption: “Any one else raw dogging these flights?”
Regardless of what it’s called, it seems there are people out there who need nothing more than their own thoughts to keep them occupied for hours at a time.
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