--- title: Use of Bare Feet on Plane Movie Screen Is Causing Concern description: A plane passenger's use of his bare feet to swipe through movie options on a touchscreen has people shaking their heads at the behavior. canonical: https://time.com/5627341/barefeet-plane-movie/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-16T14:23:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:32.787Z og:title: Passenger's Use of Bare Feet on Plane Movie Screen Is Causing Concern og:description: Plane passenger's use of bare feet to swipe through movie options is not ideal og:url: https://time.com/5627341/barefeet-plane-movie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Passenger's Use of Bare Feet on Plane Movie Screen Is Causing Concern twitter:description: Plane passenger's use of bare feet to swipe through movie options is not ideal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Plane Passenger Who Used His Bare Feet to Scroll Through Movie Options Is Raising Concern > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e301b219-4cd4-41a4-a153-2bee6e7a44e5&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 16, 2019 2:23 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 16, 2019 2:23 PM UTC There are certain unspoken rules of flying [in an airplane](https://time.com/5622194/boeing-737-max-flyadeal-airbus/) — because when you’re crammed into an airborne metal tube with hundreds of other strangers, [etiquette](https://time.com/5354042/travel-etiquette-mistakes-fly-experts/) is important. Hygiene is particularly critical, but apparently one recent plane passenger missed this crucial lesson, as his fellow flyers noticed during a recent trip. The video, shared on Twitter by one of the other passengers’ friends, author [Alafair Burke](http://alafairburke.com/), shows an unnamed and unidentifiable person using his feet to swipe through movie options on the touchscreen pinned to the wall in front of him. (Looks like he was at the front of a cabin section, allowing greater leg room for this unnecessarily dexterous feat.) As Burke further shared on Twitter, it didn’t appear to be an issue with using his hands — the passenger in question was able to enter and exit the plane carrying his luggage as normal. “He just likes to watch TV with his bare feet,” she suggested. (Other commenters noted that he could have an impairment that hinders his ability to lean forward to access the screen, offering one explanation.) But in general, this behavior is raising eyebrows. After all, feet are not the most ideal extremity to use on a surface that others will regularly be touching with their bare hands. While some do remove their shoes on plans, it’s best to keep them on the floor, where they belong — and for everyone else, take a page out of top traveler [Naomi Campbell’s](https://time.com/5574554/time-100-red-carpet-video/) book and make sure to sanitize your space when you enter a plane, because you just never know. > [](https://twitter.com/alafairburke/status/1150885580869447680) > [](https://twitter.com/alafairburke/status/1150941277724262400) > [](https://twitter.com/boopyape/status/1150922792243613696) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5627341/barefeet-plane-movie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5627341/barefeet-plane-movie/"},"headline":"A Plane Passenger Who Used His Bare Feet to Scroll Through Movie Options Is Raising Concern","datePublished":"2019-07-16T14:23:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:32.787Z","description":"A plane passenger's use of his bare feet to swipe through movie options on a touchscreen has people shaking their heads at the behavior.","url":"https://time.com/5627341/barefeet-plane-movie/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Social Media","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5627341/barefeet-plane-movie/","name":"A Plane Passenger Who Used His Bare Feet to Scroll Through Movie Options Is Raising Concern"}}]}] ```