Although we must think of ourselves as individuals in order to survive, it’s more accurate to describe ourselves as being part of a “hive mind” or what Howard Bloom calls the global brain. We are nodes in a social brain:

A complex adaptive system is a learning machine, one made up of semi-independent modules which work together to solve a problem. Some complex adaptive systems, like rain forests, are biological. Others, like human economies, are social.

We are constantly learning and adapting, and social media is accelerating humanity’s shift.