West Bloomfield, MI -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/29/2016 --When author and advice columnist Debra Darvick saw yet another family at a restaurant interacting with their devices instead of one another, she knew she had to do something. "We are losing a precious part of our humanity," she says. "Our electronics are necessities; yet face-to-face communication is crucial to healthy relationships and emotional well-being." With that disengaged family in mind, Darvick created Picture a Conversation™, a set of 25 conversation prompts designed to spark deep and meaningful conversations.

The simple act of face to face conversation is not yet on the endangered list, but the topic is definitely trending. Author and development psychologist Susan Pinker wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal," People who had face-to-face contact with children, friends and family as infrequently as every few months had the highest rates of [depression] Those who connected with people in person, at least three times a week, had the lowest." Pittsburgh blogger mom Molly Pascal's recent Modern Love Column recounted how infrequently she and her husband of seven years talked to one another. "This dynamic — of being physically together but emotionally disengaged — had also bled into the mundane of the everyday, with too much silence and space between us on the couch and with us cooking on opposite sides of the kitchen island." Her cure? Talking.

Darvick, a mother of two young adults, understands and appreciates the benefits of technology. A decades-long observer and writer on topics of parenting, relationships, and spiritual growth, she also understands the primal necessity to connect without it as well.

Unique among the genre of discussion starters, the prompts use nature photographs (taken by her husband from their extensive travels) to inspire each card's theme. Grief, mindfulness, new parenting, and making difficult decisions are just a few of the conversation topics presented. "This is not just about a conversation with friends and loved ones," she says. "Because we are so outwardly engaged with our devices, we are not only losing touch with one another but with our inner self. These questions ask us to look within. They open doors to self-discovery."

As we engage ever more tightly with electronic devices, psychologists, thought leaders, teachers and artists are realizing how technology increasingly inhibits real time human interaction. Debra Darvick's timely and creative answer places her dead center of an ever-expanding debate on the importance of balancing screen time with actual face time.

"This is not just about a conversation with friends and loved ones," she says. "Because we are so outwardly engaged with our devices, we are not only losing touch with one another but with our inner self. These questions ask us to look within. They open doors to self-discovery."

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To check out Picture a Conversation website go to http://pictureaconversation.com/