{"id":96255,"date":"2026-02-18T16:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/?p=96255"},"modified":"2026-02-18T16:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:50:39","slug":"are-we-all-watching-a-different-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/are-we-all-watching-a-different-movie\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Are We All Watching a Different Movie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is This Why People Disagree More Than Ever?<\/h1>\n

Are we all watching a different movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question I keep coming back to. How can people have such wildly different views on politics, countries, war, sport, history \u2014 you name it? Is it because, outside of our own lived experience, the only gateway we have to the rest of the world is what we watch and listen to?<\/p>\n

Our movie.<\/p>\n

The radio station you listen to is part of your soundtrack. The reels you watch on Facebook. The posts you see on Twitter and Instagram. The shows you choose on Netflix or YouTube<\/a>. The podcasts you follow. All of it forms your personal movie \u2014 the story of the world as it\u2019s presented to you.<\/p>\n

So when you bump into someone you haven\u2019t seen for 20 years, you\u2019re not just catching up with a person. You\u2019re comparing two completely different movies.<\/p>\n

\n

When We All Watched the Same Film<\/h2>\n

Think back to the 1970s and early \u201980s.<\/p>\n

Our movie as children was BBC One<\/strong>, BBC Two<\/strong>, and ITV<\/strong>. That was it. During the day, there wasn\u2019t even any television. What you saw in the evening was what your parents watched. What you heard was what people at school talked about.<\/p>\n

If you grew up in the countryside, your world was mud, fields, streams, and village life. You knew the names of the people in your village. That was your universe.<\/p>\n

Entertainment was shared. Most families watched the same programmes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The Two Ronnies<\/li>\n
  • Morecambe and Wise<\/li>\n
  • Coronation Street<\/li>\n
  • Emmerdale<\/li>\n
  • Grange Hill<\/li>\n
  • That\u2019s Life<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    You might lean toward ITV for lighter entertainment. The BBC felt a bit more educational. BBC Two had documentaries and creative programming. But fundamentally, we were watching variations of the same thing.<\/p>\n

    When you met your mates in the pub, you shared a common knowledge base. You\u2019d seen the same news bulletin at 6pm. You\u2019d heard the same headlines. There were fewer pundits and fewer opinions. News was shorter, and largely fact-delivery.<\/p>\n

    It wasn\u2019t perfect. But it was shared.<\/p>\n

    \n

    The Gradual Splitting of the Screen<\/h2>\n

    In the \u201980s, we got Channel 4. Then Channel 5 in the 90’s. Then Sky arrived and exploded the number of channels from five to fifty.<\/p>\n

    The shared movie started to fracture.<\/p>\n

    There were still big national events \u2014 the Olympics, FA Cup Finals, Six Nations \u2014 that brought people together. But increasingly, viewing became selective.<\/p>\n

    Then came the internet.<\/p>\n

    Early internet felt fairly benign. Emails. Information. Basic websites. It wasn\u2019t an entertainment ecosystem in the way it is now. But by the 2000s, something fundamental had changed.<\/p>\n

    Now, everybody can have their own individual movie.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Algorithms and the Personal Movie<\/h2>\n

    Today, your news may not come from the BBC. It may come from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Reels, or podcasts.<\/p>\n

    And here\u2019s where it gets interesting.<\/p>\n

    Your viewing preferences guide what you are shown. If you lean towards environmental activism, your feed will likely show you content reinforcing that perspective. If you lean against it, you\u2019ll be shown the counter-argument, backed by its own experts, data, and statistics.<\/p>\n

    Both sides feel informed. Both sides feel correct. Both sides feel the other must be mad.<\/p>\n

    These platforms are not built to challenge you. They are built to keep you engaged long enough to serve adverts. The goal is not balanced truth \u2014 it\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

    So your movie increasingly reinforces what you already believe.<\/p>\n

    \n

    When Two Movies Collide<\/h2>\n

    This becomes obvious when discussing politics.<\/p>\n

    Broadly speaking \u2014 and labels don\u2019t work perfectly anymore \u2014 you might describe two broad outlooks:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Collectivist<\/strong>: more state intervention, redistribution, higher taxes.<\/li>\n
    • Individualist<\/strong>: smaller state, lower taxes, greater personal freedom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      If you\u2019ve consumed years of content reinforcing one side, you\u2019ll see the world through that lens.<\/p>\n

      When you sit down with someone from the other camp, you aren\u2019t just disagreeing. You are referencing entirely different source material.<\/p>\n

      You are quoting different facts.<\/p>\n

      You are referencing different experts.<\/p>\n

      You are drawing from different documentaries, podcasts, data sets, and narratives.<\/p>\n

      It\u2019s like arguing about a film when you\u2019ve watched different versions of it.<\/p>\n

      \n

      COVID: The Ultimate Split Screen<\/h2>\n

      If there was a moment that exposed this division fully, it was COVID.<\/p>\n

      Some believed strict lockdowns and restrictions were essential to save lives. Others believed the economic and social damage would be catastrophic and disproportionate.<\/p>\n

      Some trusted government messaging completely. Others sought out alternative scientists, podcasts, and data analysis.<\/p>\n

      Masks divided people. Vaccines divided people. Compliance divided people.<\/p>\n

      Where did those different views come from?<\/p>\n

      Different movies.<\/p>\n

      Some argue governments used strong fear-based messaging to secure compliance. Others argue the measures were necessary given the uncertainty at the time. The point isn\u2019t who was right here \u2014 it\u2019s that people were watching entirely different information streams.<\/p>\n

      And once someone has spent months immersed in one stream, it\u2019s incredibly difficult to bridge the gap in a casual conversation. You\u2019d need days to align on basic assumptions before even starting the debate.<\/p>\n

      \n

      Why It Feels Harder to Communicate Now<\/h2>\n

      We may not have ever been further apart.<\/p>\n

      Each side feels morally certain. Each side feels the other is not just mistaken, but dangerous.<\/p>\n

      And that\u2019s because their movie tells them so.<\/p>\n

      When you understand that the person opposite you has been fed a completely different narrative, different data, different heroes and villains \u2014 it becomes easier to see why conversations break down.<\/p>\n

      It\u2019s not just disagreement.<\/p>\n

      It\u2019s competing realities.<\/p>\n

      \n

      So What Does This Mean?<\/h2>\n

      It means that when you sit down for a pint and drift into politics, you need to remember something simple:<\/p>\n

      You are not starting from the same base facts.<\/p>\n

      The objective truth may exist somewhere in the middle, but your reference libraries are different.<\/p>\n

      And perhaps the first step to better conversation is recognising that we are all, to some extent, watching different movies.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n