While some people load their iPads with shows or buy a book to read specifically on the plane, others are content to use the time freed up by a long-haul flight to stare into space and the in-flight map that tracks the airplane's course.
The latter activity has recently been picked up on TikTok as "raw-dogging." The practice of spending a flight without any entertainment at all is increasingly being named as the summer's newest travel trend.
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"About to rawdog this 10-hour flight, no headphones, just map," TikTok duo @WeAreSachi wrote overtop of a short clip zooming in on the airline's map of a route departing from London's Heathrow Airport.
'Never seen so many people raw-dogging a flight in my life'
"I have never seen so many people raw dogging a flight in my life," travel TikToker Michelle wrote overtop a video that takes a wider look at the cabin and shows several seats in which the entertainment system is open to the map function. "This was a FIVE HOUR flight from NYC to SF? Aren't San Franciscans always glued to a screen or something???"
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While the term "raw dogging" (it has been spelled separately, together and with a hyphen) has earlier and less work-safe connotations, Google Trends (GOOGL) shows that the search term "rawdogging flight" saw a clear spike at the end of spring 2024.
The term pops up most frequently on TikTok compared to other social media sites like Instagram (META) or X. Wudini, a Manchester DJ, recently took to his 13.2 million followers to describe how he "just raw-dogged a seven-hour flight (new personal best)." Fans of this practice will often brag about how this gives them time to disconnect and sit with themselves similar to extended meditation. Wudini concluded by saying, "The power of my mind knows no bounds."
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Internet reacts: 'I did this in school every day for years'
"This is actually an insane dopamine detox," reads one of the most upvoted comments under his video.
"I did this in school every day for years," reads another.
Often, viral social media terms give a catchy name to things people have been doing for years. Even before airlines started securing licensing deals to offer passengers a choice of in-flight movies and shows, there was the in-flight map — KLM (AFRAF) and Swissair (now a part of the Lufthansa Group (DLAKF) ) were the first airlines to start showing a moving map on a single TV in the cabin in the 1980s. In the decades to come, this changed to a map option on the backseat screen that travelers can choose to view among other entertainment options such as films and games.
"Before screens were embedded into the seat back, they were projected onto a canvas in the cabin," one writer recently wrote for The Direction of Travel. "The maps were quite crude compared to what we experience today, low resolution and with little detail. A thick red line would trace the route of your flight from departure to destination across an almost featureless world. On top of the line, a generic aircraft- shaped object would slowly move along drawing behind it a virtual contrail.”
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