While some people load their iPads with programs 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 look into space and the in-flight map that follows the plane's course.
This last activity has recently been picked up on TikTok as “raw.” The practice of spending a flight without any entertainment is increasingly seen as the new summer travel trend.
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“About to do this 10 hour flight, no headphones, just map,” TikTok duo @WeAreSachi wrote above of a short clip zooming in on the airline's map of a route departing from London Heathrow Airport.
“I have never seen so many people bothering a flight in my life.”
“I've never seen so many people chasing a flight in my life,” TikToker Michelle travels wrote overtop a video that gives a broader view of the cabin and shows several seats in which the entertainment system is open to the map function. “This was a FIVE HOUR flight from New York to San Francisco? Aren't San Franciscans always glued to a screen or something?”
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While the term “raw dogging” (it's been written separately, together, and with a hyphen) has older, less job-safe connotations, Google Trends (GOOGLE) shows that the search term “rawdogging flight” saw a clear increase in late spring 2024.
The term appears more frequently on TikTok compared to other social media sites like instagram. (GOAL) o x. Wudini, a DJ from Manchester, recently visited his 13.2 million followers to describe how he “simply did a seven-hour flight (new personal best).” Fans of this practice often boast that this gives them time to unplug and sit with themselves similar to prolonged meditation. Wudini concluded by saying, “The power of my mind knows no limits.”
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Internet reacts: 'I did this in school every day for years'
“This is actually an amazing dopamine detox,” reads one of the top-rated comments under his video.
“I did this at 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 striking licensing deals to offer passengers a selection of movies and shows on board, there was the in-flight map: KLM (AFRAF) and Swissair (now part of the Lufthansa Group (DLAKF) ) were the first airlines to start displaying a moving map on a single in-cabin TV in the 1980s. Over the next few decades, this changed to a map option on the rear seat screen that travelers can choose to view between other entertainment options such as movies and games.
“Before screens were embedded in the backs of seats, they were projected onto a canvas in the cabin,” says one writer. wrote recently for the Travel Direction. “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 origin to destination across a nearly featureless world. Above the line, a generic airplane – The shaped object would move slowly drawing a virtual trail behind it.
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