It's being touted everywhere: underneath the foil lid of your yogurt, in the billboard you're driving past and in your Sunday newspaper.

New technology is making everyday products interactive by linking them to the Internet through cell phones.

Though the purpose of this technology may be to streamline communication, a side effect is that corporations that can afford the technology may abuse it for the sake of reaching consumers.

A Seattle Times article reported that the latest technology twist that is gaining ground in Asia and being developed in the United States allows cell phones to read encoded information on everyday objects through a barcode and turn the information into videos, photos, pictures or other files on the phone.

For instance, McDonald's customers in Japan can point their cell phone at a hamburger wrapping and the nutrition information pops up on their screen, the article reported.

Advertisers are using similar technology to incorporate supplementary media into their advertising.

As U.S. advertisers begin to consider this type of technology, consumers could find themselves in a catch-22.

Although this technology makes our lives easier by simplifying time-consuming activities, such as checking in for a plane flight, advertisers are being forced to further infiltrate consumers' lives to get their products seen.

In addition, our communication devices are allowing — even encouraging — us to stop communicating with one another. We don't even need to call 411 anymore and talk to the automated voice to find out where the nearest Burger King is; we can just log online through our phones.

Pointing cell phones at objects like magic wands to get information seems pretty quirky and impersonal now, but at some point this will probably become the norm. Thankfully, consumers will be the ones to decide in what extent they will allow technology to guide their lives.