Inside the Raw Dog Challenge

So you’ve boarded your flight and settled into your cramped seat, only to realize you’re wedged between an overly chatty neighbor on one side and a guy snoring like a garbage disposal on the other. Yet before you lies redemption: a glowing TV screen offering hours of time-killing entertainment, just waiting for you to plug in and check out.

But instead, with a smirk of self-satisfaction, you turn it off. You’ve decided to take the Raw Dog challenge on this flight. Which means no movies, no music, no podcasts, no snacks—hell, no bathroom breaks if you’re feeling extra tough.

For most of us, air travel is an exercise in survival and avoidance. We board our plane armed with noise-canceling headphones, an iPad loaded with binge-worthy Netflix series, a book or two, maybe a magazine, and enough snacks to last a week.

But in 2024, a brave—or maybe just masochistic—new breed of traveler has emerged, determined to do exactly the opposite. These people are “raw dogging” flights. This new social media-driven travel trend transforms inflight suffering into a flex.

The Art of Staring into the Abyss

So, what exactly does raw dogging a flight mean? It’s simple: you board your plane, take your seat, and proceed to do absolutely nothing. No headphones, no books, no phone, no movies. No flipping through a newspaper or the in-flight magazine. No sleeping, either.

You just sit there and stare straight ahead. For hours. The one form of “entertainment” that is allowed is watching the in-flight tracker. But some enthusiasts go a step further, forgoing snacks, water, and—if you can believe it—bathroom breaks.

Norwegian soccer star Erling Haaland, for instance, bragged about surviving a seven-hour flight with nothing but his own thoughts. “Just raw dogged a 7 hour flight,” he posted on TikTok. “No phone, no sleep, no water, no food. Only map. #easy.”

Of course, the trend has blown up on TikTok, where everything from laundry folding to eyebrow plucking is prone to go viral. Social media users have started treating raw dogging as some kind of high-stakes endurance sport, like the Ironman of doing nothing as the hours crawl past. One TikToker bragged about raw dogging a seven-hour flight, calling it a new “personal best,” as if he had just run a 4-minute mile.

Mind and Body Reset or Simple Tik Tok Trend?

But let’s not kid ourselves—raw dogging is not for the faint of heart. Most of us spend long-haul flights pinning all of our hopes on the screen in front of us, scrolling through mediocre movie options to kill the tedium. Could you imagine just … doing nothing? For hours?

At least at a meditative retreat you could take a peaceful stroll through nature. But 36,000 feet in the air all we’ve got is the white noise of jet engines, our restless neighbors, and the occasional bout of turbulence, or god forbid, flatulence. 

Some advocates portray raw dogging as a “dopamine detox,” a chance to let the mind reset by stripping away the constant digital stimulation. They may have a point. In a world where every moment of downtime is filled with digital distraction, raw dogging, at the very least, offers us busy travelers the rare and possibly much-needed opportunity to disconnect, to contemplate our existence as a tiny dot hurtling through the stratosphere.

“If you want to spend five-plus hours in the air doing nothing except watching the animated flight-tracker map, be my guest,” a British columnist responded. “But don’t pretend it has any sort of deep, mental, spiritual or physical benefit.” He didn’t specify whether or not he’d put this theory to the test in the air.

If you’re considering raw dogging your next flight, we suggest starting small. A two or three-hour flight should be plenty to test your mettle before you go transatlantic. And, just in case going raw isn’t for you, maybe bring along your headphones and a book. And always bring a good supply of water to stay hydrated.

Raw dogging might be a fun story to share online, but no one wants to be that passenger who has a major mid-flight meltdown. Now that would be a viral TikTok moment.

Aaron Kenedi