Literacy? Important?

Well, of course literacy is important. In my mind, the most important part of literacy is discourse knowledge. Discourse knowledge ties into the reading process; in learning that there are components to the reading process itself, we found that reading also connects to situations. How do you read a person? How do you read a reaction? How do you read a text message? When you know the background of a person or the background of a situation, you are better able to read. What I'm trying to get at is that literacy enables one to read. The language for any given situation is imperative in order for an individual to interact properly and be well-received by his/her fellow peers. Technology has changed our language in such a way that growing up with and adapting to the changes of it have become a must. Remember the commercial for AT&T where Bethanne is responding to her Mom about text messaging as, "I-D-K, my b-f-f-, Jill?" Would you understand that if you weren't familiar with text messaging language? So my question is (although I side here with literacy), can reading come before literacy?