Whenever I fly, I have to have something to do. I load up on tunes, on podcasts, and I cram in earbuds as soon as possible to avoid any, “So, are you from Harrisburg or just visiting?” small talk.
What I don’t do is nothing but stare straight ahead for hours and hours like a psycho, but that’s the biggest trend in air travel right now with dudes (this appears to be very much a dude thing) looking to “raw dog” flights.
Translation: they do nothing for the entire trip. Not even eat, sleep, or drink.
According to The New York Post, this trend has been credited to Idris Elba’s character in the AppleTV series Hijacked, who has to sit on a flight from London to Dubai after it was — anyone? anyone? — hijacked.
Maybe that’s an oversimplification of the plot, but that… that sounds terrible.
This is seen as pushing yourself to your mental and physical limits. (Getty Images)
They claim that watching a flight live pushes people to their limits
Enthusiasts see raw dogging as a way to push themselves to their mental and physical limits. More than anything, it shows how rapidly people’s standards for “physical limits” have plummeted: before, people ran ultramarathons for it; now they just sit still on an airplane.
It’s funny, but I get how it works. We’re advancing so much with technology, but people still miss simpler times, which is why records are still as popular as ever since the CD came out.
But whoever said, “Oh, I miss the days when I was bored on a plane”? So why stop at a plane? Forgo all of our modern conveniences and just sit in the dark churning butter like the Amish.
I’ll be flying in a few weeks, and I can promise you I won’t be doing raw dogging. In fact, I might go the exact opposite direction to spit on the raw dogging movement. I’ll be taking music, books, my laptop, tablet, and snacks. I might watch one movie on the screen in front of me and another on my phone. Maybe I’ll be “that person” and bring a little guitar and practice amp and take requests.
I plan on doing lots of activities to kill time, but I definitely can’t resist getting on a plane (not because I can’t, but because it would drive me crazy).
