Rawdogging flights: as bad an idea as it sounds?

With so much in-flight entertainment available on planes, you might wonder why on earth someone would "challenge themselves to sit in silence", said The Sun.

But a new trend known as "rawdogging" a flight – no phones, no films, no reading or distraction of any kind – is "taking the world of social media by storm", said the paper. The term went viral in May after a 26-year-old Londoner posted on TikTok about spending a seven-hour trip watching only the flight map. "Anyone else bareback flights?" he asked. 

The trend "crossed over into mainstream conversations" after Manchester City footballer Erling Haaland posted a picture of himself on a plane, said The Daily Mail. He claimed to have made it through a seven-hour flight with "no phone no sleep no water no food only map". It was "#easy", added the young Norwegian – though he looked "pale and almost robotic", said the paper. 

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'The opportunity to recharge mentally'

Once slang for sex without a condom, the term "rawdogging" is used online to mean doing something without protection or support – the hard way, said the BBC. Increasing numbers of "mostly athletic young men" are posting videos of themselves "rawdogging" flights, perhaps to showcase their ability to "handle solitude and discomfort with stoicism".

The trend implies "a collective yearning for balance as people seek to reclaim their mental space and foster a deeper connection with their inner selves", said business psychologist Danielle Haig. In our fast-paced world, rawdogging "offers an opportunity to recharge mentally". 

The "visceral, shocked reaction" to the trend is understandable, said Sadhbh O'Sullivan for the i news site. But modern life contains a "constant barrage" of stimulation. Once I stopped wearing headphones, I found myself thinking peacefully. I felt engaged with the world and looked at my phone less. Now I am content to sit with my "whirring" brain, and chase particular trains of thought once "drowned out by a comedy podcast". 

Being alone with my thoughts has become a "treat, not a punishment". Forget flights – I'm "rawdogging life". "And frankly, I am loving it."

'I've never been so bored'

But this is nothing new, after all. "Young, internet-dwelling men" seem to think they "invented self-restraint", said Guy Kelly in The Daily Telegraph. But these "tough nuts" remind me of "stylites", said Christopher Howse in the same paper – 5th-century religious "ascetics" who sat on pillars during the early Byzantine Empire days. "Silent, fasting and weatherbeaten, but a bit show-offy."

Experts have warned that taken to extremes – i.e. no standing, eating or drinking during a longhaul flight – can lead to dehydration, fatigue and even deep vein thrombosis. "They're idiots," GP Gill Jenkins told the BBC. "A digital detox might do you some good, but all the rest of it is against medical advice."

This trend has simply become "the latest way for men to prove their masculinity", said The Guardian's Rich Pelley. Or perhaps the gender divide might be because "women simply wouldn't be that stupid". Without headphones, all thoughts revert to: "Are we nearly there yet?" – like a five-year-old. 

After rawdogging a six-hour Megabus journey, one thing's for sure: "I've never been so utterly bored in my entire life".