There’s a popular mythology that surrounds the first presidential debate to be held on television that goes like this: People who listened to the debate on the radio thought Richard Nixon had a command and knowledge of policy over John F. Kennedy. Those who watched it on TV saw a tanned, handsome Kennedy outdo the sweaty, five o’clock-shadowed Nixon.

More than 50 years later, it’s television that has become the established medium; social media the upstart way of communicating and getting news.

So it was the debate between Governor Andrew Cuomo and a very different Nixon named Cynthia that provided a strikingly similar dynamic, giving voters a split screen and split reality experience for the same event.

MORE: Upstate ignored in gubernatorial debate

The sole gubernatorial primary debate between Cuomo and Nixon at Hofstra University had an unusual arrangement: The debate was taped before a live studio audience, with reporters watching along from a filing center, without any embargo on the event. The full debate itself aired at 7 p.m.

That meant, unlike just a few years ago, there were two ways of watching the same debate. You could follow along on Twitter, with its video snippets and debate one-liners, or you could watch it on the traditional TV medium.

For Cuomo, the TV debate was book ended by a campaign ad featuring Nixon praising the governor. They saw the full exchanges, the context for questions, an explanation of stances.

Those who only watched the debate through the lens of Twitter got video of Cuomo growing irritated by Nixon’s interjections, the governor calling Nixon a “corporation” and a “corporate Democrat” because she has an s-corporation to manage her acting career — neither of which were entirely flattering moments for the incumbent.

This isn’t to say the reverse could also apply: You could watch the tweets and video highlights and think Nixon came across as rude, or catch the ad at the beginning of the debate and find Cuomo’s campaign commercial a bit desperate.

Broadly speaking, demographic data has shown older people continue to watch linear or live TV, while younger voters, engaged on social media watch very little or — gasp — do not have a TV at all.

But it’s a further fragmentation of the voting public and another instance that even when there can be shared moments of events, there are multiple ways of seeing the same thing.

And this goes to a broader point about this primary election: Cuomo’s play for the establishment Democrats, establishment media and establishment organizations like private and public-sector labor — the analogue validators to Nixon’s app store of niche websites, advocacy organizations and disaffected young liberals.

For more, read our State of Politics blog.