Iconography as the New Newspeak Options

[CanRay]

I remember reading how the Megacorps are promoting Iconography Literacy opposed to Language Literacy in one of the Fluff Books awhile back... And also considered how badly Public Schools are probably doing.

As part of a dystopian future, illiteracy would be a pretty major problem, with a good number of SINner kids being lucky to even have DataTerms/CommLinks in their underfunded school. Text Books, forget it. Those mouldy old things have long since gone the way of the POTS.

Shadowrunners would actually be a bastion of literacy, in my mind, however. The amount of datawork and back-checking they have to do would make it a survival trait. Not to mention a lot of free time on their hands to improve themselves in a recreational manner ("20th Century Artwork" Knowledge Skill anyone?).

How badly does this affect things in your games, folks?