Will the rawdogging trend affect drink sales?
Rawdogging, to sit with your own thoughts when travelling, is going viral as a trend, But will it start to affect drinks sales? db finds out.
The mindfulness trend which involves people sitting through train trips and flights without any form of entertainment and forgoing food and drink for the duration of the journey is going viral online. The movement has become so popular that rawdogging even became the American Dialect Society’s 2024 word of the year.
Clinical psychologist Dr Ramani Durvasula recently told the national press that the trend is essentially a form of “aesthetic flying” and suggested that people were rawdogging flights because it was “a silent meditation in the sky”. But the trend is now also branching out to trains too with people choosing to journey without the aid of entertainment, sundries or drinks which could see the concept of ‘train beers’ become a reduced trend.
What began among Gen Z as a trend to show how resilient and tough someone could be, has now evolved and has started to be considered as a revolt to the immediacy of technology with Durvasula having suggested that it now appeals to people who feel they are something of a “mental introspector”.
Durvasula explained how it was now many things to different people and noted that “the ‘why’ is actually quite unclear” but said it was possibly a form of renaissance and nostalgia since “once upon a time it is possible that lots of people rawdogged flights [because] there were no options for entertainment [and before the digital revolution] you could bring a book or a magazine”.
Durvasula also pointed out that younger generations may possibly be doing it due to “exhaustion” as well as “some other emotional reason” that has now led to it becoming an “aesthetic” that can free them from the constraints of the modern day. The psychologist added: “It could be a sort of nifty built-in you ‘got nothing else to do’ mindfulness mind clearing experience”
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Patrick Warburton, best-known for his role of David Puddy in US sitcom Seinfield recently revealed that he felt partly “responsible” for the trend after resharing a clip on social media in which his character David and on-off girlfriend Elaine, were on a flight together and he was rawdogging the whole time.
In the scene, David tells Elaine he has no intention of entertaining himself on the journey but instead plans to “sit there staring at the back of the seat”.
Warburton explained: “You better be okay with what’s going on up here [pointing to his head]…just be careful, it’s not for novices.”
Clips on TikTok began showing some Gen Z passengers trying to complete long haul journeys by rawdogging the whole way with one TikTok creator @westwashere even going so far as to upload multiple videos of himself backing the trend and encouraging his followers to try it too. In a recent caption, he wrote: “Is someone gonna match my freak? (go the whole 10 hours flight, not moving from my chair, only watching the maps and airspeed.”
Tiktok creator @cookestraveltok also recently revealed how her mother was a particular fan of rawdogging flights and added: “My mum’s beige flag is that she rawdogs every flight, no matter how long.” The clip has since accrued more than eight million views.
As to whether the trend could affect drinks sales, sales, airlines have remained quiet on its effects, however health experts have complained that it is dangerous to reduce hydration to such an extent. For instance, the nutritionalist Toby King told travel site Inspire Ambitions that rawdogging “is one of the most dangerous trends I have seen on social media in a while, and while it looks innocent and a bit of fun on the surface, this could have deadly consequences”.
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