Is the Brain Just One Connection In a Larger System?

I have vacillated between the following two perspectives: 

1. Solitude is the key to living the optimal human life because it reduces the number of factors required to feel in control. 

2. The brain works optimally when engaged with the nexus of intimate friends and family. This gives the person more space to distribute their burden and pain, while simultaneously providing almost infinite perspective and knowledge. 

In the insular approach, you guard yourself from becoming dependent on other humans for your own happiness, stability, and sanity. Other humans are reliably unreliable when it comes to being there for you and providing meaningful, accurate feedback. Another dimension to this is how Western culture looks up to the individual who can single-handedly take whatever life throws at them without a single peep or complain. This is a nonstarter because we are organisms which require immediate feedback of our interaction with the physical world. In other words, inevitability, you soak up everything around you and integrate it within your brain. Imagine a child who decided to live in solitude and only depend on himself. How would he ever learn basic functions and social skills? My point is that this holds true throughout adulthood, regardless of what we tell ourselves. The risk of an oversight outweighs the reward of independence in this approach and limits your access to only one perspective, one narrative, finite computational power, and little support.

The collective human consciousness is highly underrated. Humans who are alive nowadays have immediate access to all the grunt work performed by all the scientist, artist, teachers, visionaries, poets, and masterminds of the entire human race since the beginning of our existence. This type of knowledge doesn't always translate into practical advice on living the optimal day-to-day life. However, it is testament to the importance of sharing insight and emotions. Two brains are truly better than one, and this doesn't stop at just solving problems and group projects. This extends to your pain, secrets, strife, and burdens. Two brains (or more) are better equipped to handle distress. Why would someone subject themselves to pain and solitude when we are all begging to feel real and connected? Why would you trust only one perspective (your own) when approached with an issue? Tap into the collective human consciousness and truly expand the scope of your reality. Use your friends and family for support, so you can reach further towards the stars, and they will thank you for it. By sharing the not so positive things you output a more realistic narrative of life, and it allows others to feel connected via empathy.

In reality, a more practical combination of 65% sharing and a 35% solitude is optimal. Keeping this balance is difficult, but the point of this was to stress the importance of taping into the nexus of human minds and the collective consciousness.