CSUN On Point

Dating apps have become huge over the last few years, and they really have changed the culture. Many say it is easier to find matches and love through online dating, rather than having to meet someone in person, especially in the age of the MeToo movement. People who don’t have time and money to go out can save so much time and effort. However, some people lie and exaggerate on their online dating bios, so some feel it can be hard to trust online daters.

“[Dating apps] really broaden the spectrum for what’s possible for people,” dating and relationship expert Jenna Ponaman said. “You know that the dating world is no longer about what is just in your community…There literally are an infinite amount of possibilities, so that’s really great. It promotes interracial marriages and couples… and it’s really a place where people can feel a little more courageous about what kind of person they want to be, or how they can express themselves.”

But Ponaman also said these apps may allow people to think that they don’t have to settle down or look for serious relationships. “People think, ‘well, I can be so brave, and I can also be so frivolous’,” she said, “‘and I don’t have to commit to anything if I don’t want to’… [Scrolling through dating apps] is really no different than flipping through a magazine, shopping for a shirt.”

Online dating can also be a quick way to make sexual transactions only, rather than taking the time to develop intimacy and love. Tinder is a popular app for this specific reason, but those who want more may have to put in more effort.

“People are still not building their relationship skills,” Parc Foundation counselor and instructor Kasey Carter said. “People aren’t asking the right questions before they express their interests. [For example,] do you know what their values are from their dating profile? Probably not. Do you know how they treat a waiter or a waitress? Because that shows you a lot about their character…You do know they like hiking, they do yoga, they are trying to be a vegan, and that they love their dog. [That’s good information], but that doesn’t help you have a relationship that is healthy and fulfilling.”

Lying has been an issue for online dating since it started. “Cat-fishing” is a problem on online dating sites around the world, and experts advise users to be very careful. But many people exaggerate about their age, profession, hobbies, ethnicity, height and accomplishments. Even users who aren’t criminals may not present themselves truly, or show who they really are.

“I’m all about honesty and authenticity,” psychotherapist and author Kelli Miller said. “I will have some clients who will put up photos from ten years ago. [I tell them] that’s not going to work, because then you’re setting yourself up [for disappointment]. I’m all about just being honest and upfront. If you have kids, say you have kids. Don’t hide it.”

Dating experts said dependency on cell phones and online technology may prevent two people from have a true connection. Relationships are about meeting, not chatting online. Cell phones may cause people to go out less, and some people don’t know how to interact, or how to approach strangers, without seeming sexist or creepy. The younger generation, in this new cell phone era, may not have developed proper manners, which are key to starting successful relationships. But Miller said even a phone call is better than judging someone only from an online dating profile.

Ponaman said she encourages her clients to go on several dates with people they meet online, to try to get to know them. She said people should experiment, and learn to look for partners with the traits they want. They should not just go out on dates because they matched with someone online, and then feel like they have to become attached to them immediately.

Miller, Ponaman and Carter all stressed that people must love themselves first, before they can love another.

“As a coach, I would encourage men and women to date more,” Ponaman said, “and that can be whatever they interpret it to be. But the reason for this is when we isolate to one person, we do get attached a lot faster and lot more, [but only] on that superficial plane. Whereas, if you have other options, you feel a little more free to say ‘well, if there are a few things I don’t like about this person, then that is okay, because I can do more research, with these other people, because I still have other options’.”

Moderator: Mareo Ahmir Lawson

Producer: Leslie Estrada

Anchor: Emmanuelle Roumain

Social Media Editor: Rudy Aguado

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mareo Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Roumain

One of the biggest news stories this year has been the ongoing health concerns, issues, and even deaths related to vaping. The cause of these health issues remains unknown, but another question is how did vaping turn from the healthier alternative to cigarettes into a public health crisis?

In October, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors placed a ban on e-cigarettes with flavors other than menthol and tobacco.

“E-cigarettes are the first exposure many teens are experiencing with flavored products, and that alone appeals to youth to try [them], and become hooked,” Jessica Galura, an intern for the CSUN College of Health and Human Development, said. “The amount of social media influencers, and marketing that is targeted to the youth, is really what’s getting them right now.”

The Centers for Disease Control report that the death toll linked to vaping is currently at more than forty. Despite this, and the thousands of reported illnesses, some consumers continue to ignore the risks of these products.

“It is about educating, collaborating, developing new programs to help people quit,” the American Lung Association’s Marsha Ramos said. “We are trying to go into school districts and provide some education, as well as limit access to smoking and vaping, because it is quite addictive.”

Dr. Tony Kuo of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health agreed that education is one solution to this ongoing crisis. “In the last three years, the e-cigarette probably went under the radar in terms of regulation,” he said. “I think, for the Public Health Department, I think our number one priority is we need to educate the public.”

Nicotine is the component in vape products that causes addiction, as well as many other health issues. However, some of the reported illnesses have been linked to products containing THC. When addressing addiction, individuals have sought support from a wide range of rehab centers in Oregon.

“If you look at the recent CDC statistics,” Kuo said,  “almost 55 percent of people who have been hospitalized use both THC and nicotine based products. The point is, we don’t know what exactly is causing the illnesses, but we know it is all related to e-cigarettes.”

Experts say nicotine vapes can be a gateway to THC among young people. “It started off with nicotine,” Galura said.  “But it eventually led to THC concentrate vapes, while a lot of the incidents that school administrators tell us about are about THC vapes.”

“About 70 percent of the cases nationwide are associated with THC or CBD,” Dr. Chidinma Chima-Melton of UCLA’s Health Division of Pulmonology said. “Right now, I don’t think we have enough data to say what the best options are to stop this crisis.”

Moderator: Joe Willeford

Producer: Jenny Almanza

Anchor: Vivian Rayos

Social Media Editor: Damian Gordon

Reporters: Jenny Almanza, Tamie Benitez, Damian Gordon, Vivian Rayos, Joe Willeford

The Pew Research Center says approximately one-quarter of all veterans say its difficult to transition from military life to civilian life, and nearly half the veterans who served after the September 11 attacks say their adjustment has been difficult.

About 700 veterans attend CSUN. CSUN Veterans Affairs Coordinators Vanessa Ochoa and Noe Aguirre said there are plenty of veterans resources on campus. “We process applications, transcripts, do the evaluations, and they [veterans] make the decisions,” Aguirre said. “We’ve also been given the flexibility. If we need to make any exceptions [for admissions], we’ll go ahead and do that.”

Aguirre said one of the difficulties in providing services to help, is that many veterans and active duty military are so used to following orders that sometimes it is difficult for them to “accept their own decisions.” She described it as a form of brainwashing, caused by years in the service.

Dr. Abram Milton served in the United States Marine Corps for 23 years before retiring in 2016. He’s now a clinical psychologist at CSUN’s University Counseling Center.

“The transition services [personnel] they had back then weren’t as familiar with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as they are now,” Milton said. “A lot of the time, what we see in individuals is that they may have a traumatic experience that could be combat related, or even [from something like] a traffic accident,” Milton said. “When you are coming out of combat areas, there are [now] psychologists or many health professionals who help with PTSD.”

Veteran  and CSUN student Kevin Ogletree said he joined the military to follow a family tradition. Both his parents also served. Ogletree was in the U.S Army and the U.S Marine Corps for a total of seven years. He said his transition to civilian life was difficult. He didn’t have a good enough support system, and he had to drop out of his first attempt at college life. “It wasn’t until years later, now I have matured in life experiences, and I was able to come back to school in a better state of mind.”

Robert Graves, of Disabled American Veterans Department of California, said those who have spent years in the military don’t always know what life is like after the military. “When you leave the military itself, you leave behind your network of knowledge” Graves said. “When veterans with disabilities come out of the military, they don’t know how that will affect their placement in jobs, how they study in college, or how to reintegrate with their friends or their families.”

He said transitioning is a never-ending process.

Moderators: Leslie Estrada and Emmanuelle Yang

Producer: Mareo Ahmir Lawson

Anchor: Matt Roth

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mareo Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Yang

The eSports industry is arguably one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries in the past few years. With competitive video-games drawing larger audiences all the time, eSports is today filling arenas and boosting bottom lines for both marketers and game publishers.

The popular game League of Legends attracted more viewers than the 2018 Super Bowl, an estimated 100 million. The Super Bowl, with  98 million viewers last year, had its smallest viewership since 2008.

With the dramatic rise in eSports, investors are now jumping in, a clear indication of potential growth in the sport. eSports now has a lot in common with traditional sports: highly skilled players and intense competition, and huge amounts of money generated through sponsorships and endorsements. eSports revenues were expected top one billion dollars in 2019, with viewership growing all the time.

“The sense of community is one of the biggest factors in eSports gaming,” said Erin Alonzo, president of CSUN’s eSports Club, “and there are a lot of people that go out to the college events or professional games.”

The ease of participating in the sport via streaming apps like Twitch is one factor ensuring the rise and growth of the eSports industry which also opened the doors to some of the first sports betting games.

“Streaming has made [growth] a lot more possible,” YouTube gaming show host Demothy Tien said, “because it brought [gaming] to the screens of the audience who were not able to make it out to all these events before … With streaming, it made it more accessible,  just like people who watch ordinary sports.”

Street Fight is one of the most popular games. “Streaming has been effective,” Tien said, “because it is easy to go online, type in the name of the game [like Street Fight], and get the chance to watch people playing live at a very high level.”

Tien, whose YouTube show is called “Hey! We’re Playin'”, said people enjoy watching for the competition among expert players, as well as the entertainment content of the games.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified video-games as a health risk, and potentially addictive, officially adding internet gaming to its International Classification of Diseases.

“There are a lot of misconceptions around the decision by WHO to put video-games in the category,” Tien said. “It is not quite like all the people who like playing video-games have video-game disorder, but it is about those who are actually being affected by it, in terms of creating negative effects in their lives.”

Still, the eSports industry has the potential to grow and get to the level of professional sports, despite some negative stigma towards gamers.  Tien and Alonzo said the industry and players need to address the problems, such as the addiction and health issues, player burnouts, toxicity among the different genres, and the discrimination against women in the game.

With the dramatic rise of eSports, the industry is proving viable as an investment, but the huge growth has also opened the video gaming competitive community to the scrutiny of the world. “It is getting big,” Tien said, “and it is going in the direction that other sports have gone, becoming massive, and an even bigger industry in sports to consider.”

Moderator: Ryder Mcconville

Producer: Zach Ferber

Anchor: Yarazeth Tapia

Social Media Editor: Karen Ruiz

Reporters: Ali Bash, Zach Ferber, Ryder Mcconville, Karen Ruiz, Carol Santamaria and Yarazeth Tapia

Every City Council District in Los Angeles is supposed to find a place for bridge housing, and every district has, except for ONE, and that’s the Northwest Valley. Bridge housing is paid for by $1.2 billion in funding from Proposition HHH, approved by Los Angeles voters in November 2016.  Since then, homelessness in the Northwest Valley has increased. Housing in the city has become very expensive, which most experts agree is a main cause of the increase in homelessness. According to Los Angeles Mission, 53,195 people in the Los Angeles County are experiencing homelessness. Three out of four are unsheltered. Over the last year, 9,322 people experienced homelessness for the first time. 

“It’s an issue that affects families, senior citizens, anybody from the spectrum of our society,”  San Fernando Valley homeless advocate Thomas Booth said. Booth said homeless people are often thought to be dangerous and alarming, but in fact, any one in any community can end up living on the streets.

“There is often a misconception,” said Ken Craft, CEO of Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission. “Everyone assumes that the homeless are either drug addicts, mentally ill, or that they are lazy, and they don’t want to work.”

Craft said his experience has allowed him to understand more fully why so many people end up homeless. Craft said the homeless are often people who are going through a hard time in their life, because of financial setbacks, health difficulties, or problems in their domestic situation, and those difficulties cause them to lose a stable home. But, Craft said, living on the streets, even for just a few days, can lead to exhaustion, despair and fear, then to mental illness, and sometimes to drug addiction. That makes it difficult to be open to receiving the care necessary to get back to a stable situation. It’s a good thing that there are drug addiction clinics that can help us during our journey.

It’s not always drug addiction and mental illness that lead to homelessness, Craft said. “We have discovered that some people fall into homelessness, and being homeless can be an onset to mental illness.”

Craft and Booth said they believe that housing is a necessary first step to help get people out of the streets, and into a safe and stable environment. “If we can get people into housing,” Craft said, “it will help with barriers leading to mental illness.” 

Different kinds of housing programs exist to help: affordable housing and supportive housing. Affordable housing is for people who need assistance with more than just housing. Supportive housing helps only with housing, by giving subsidies to those who need assistance.

But when a proposal to put affordable housing in the Northwest Valley reached the community, some parents said they were upset about “homeless” people living in residential neighborhoods, and they said they feared for their children. “There is no known statistics that signify in increase in crime rate [in areas with supportive housing],” Booth said.

Now developers of the proposal to build bridge housing in the Northwest Valley must continue to try to convince residents and voters to accept their plan.

Moderator: Rudy Aguado

Producer: Emmanuelle Yang

Anchor: Matt Roth

Social Media Editor: Leslie Estrada

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mario Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Yang

The Aliso Canyon gas blowout in 2015 is the largest natural gas leak in American history. Hundreds of Porter Ranch residents living a few miles away were affected by the blowout — mentally, physically, financially and politically.

“I am still worried about this situation,” CSUN Sustainability Institute’s Professor Loraine Lundquist said. “It’s still affecting residents in my neighborhood. It’s still leaking; it’s still causing all kinds of problems, and it’s still a risk when it comes to earthquakes, and it’s a fire hazard. We are still working to get the facility shut down.”

The chemicals released by the blowout have caused many health problems for the residents, and research on the long-term impact is still being conducted. “The biggest problems in terms of the people’s health is not the methane,” said Lundquist. “It’s all the other stuff that was released with the methane, because the methane is stored in depleted oil wells, and it has other chemicals that are included in it.”

SoCal Gas didn’t tell Porter Ranch residents exactly what chemicals were being leaked, Lundquist said. “SoCal Gas is actually not required to release information to the community, so we don’t actually know what all chemicals are stored in there, but we do know there are toxic, volatile, organic chemicals that occur in oil.”

Nearly four years after the gas blowout the residents of Porter Ranch remain concerned. Certain chemicals in oils can cause cancer.

“There are five teachers at Castle Bay Elementary School that we know had no cancer history in their families,” Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council member Cheri Derohanian said, “and five out of 34 teachers got cancer. One of them passed away.”

Derohanian said she recently moved to Granada Hills to get away from the gas leak, and because her children wanted to attend Granada Hills High School. She said her former neighbors have health issues anytime there is a gas leak.

When the gas leak first happened, in October 2015, many Porter Ranch residents left the area temporarily.

“We did not know what was going on,” Derohanian said,  “and my children were running the mile [track and field event] that same week in school. The school didn’t know [what was going on], and nobody else knew either. It was ridiculous that the gas company did not have a way to tell the residents.”

Some residents decided to relocate permanently, because they felt too sick to live near the gas field. Hundreds filed lawsuits, including some Los Angeles County firefighters who helped the residents evacuate their homes. “Out of 30,000 Porter Ranch residents, at least 10,000 have filed a lawsuit,” Derohanian said.

Many environmental activists are following the lawsuits. The Sunrise Movement’s Becca Lieb and Save Porter Ranch Co-Founder Matt Pakucko both said shutting down SoCal Gas facilities is the way to prevent another blowout from happening.

“The facility wasn’t really needed in the timespan of when the blowout happened,” said Lieb. “Some solutions would be to shut it down and to fully embrace the transition to clean and renewable energy… I hope that after the facility is shut down, people who are living in that community feel the difference in their air, and are able to enjoy the beautiful environment of the Valley.”

Pakucko said many other SoCal Gas facilities around Los Angeles “are in worse shape [than Aliso Canyon. The green energy solution is not just going to be for [the benefit of] the North Valley. It’s for everybody.”

“Shut down all these facilities,” Pakucko said, ” because the same chemicals are coming out of all SoCal Gas facilities…the chemicals are making people sick.”

Anchor: Leslie Estrada

Moderator: Matt Roth

Producer: Emmanuelle Yang

Social Media Editor: Leslie Estrada

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mareo Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Yang

Moderator: Demothy Tien

Producer: Kimberly Lopez Chavez

Anchor: Alan Cardoza

Social Media Editor: Zaira Garcia

Reporters: Kenia Arevalo, Monica Campos, Alan Cardoza, Lauren Cienfuegos, Zaira Garcia, Kimberly Lopez Chavez and Demothy Tien

In September of 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to reduce ocean waste by regulating the use of plastic straws in the state. The Assembly Bill 1884 limits restaurants to giving out single-use straws only upon requests from customers. It applies to full-service dining establishments, but exempts fast-food restaurants.

“Single-use plastic takes a lot of resources to make,” CSUN Sustainability Program Analyst Sarah Johnson said. “It never really goes away; it stays in the environment for hundreds and thousands of years.”

California is the first state in the nation to restrict the use of plastic straws in restaurants. Several cities in California, including Malibu and San Francisco, have gone a step further, by passing outright bans on the use of plastic straws, as well as other single-use items, including plastic utensils.

“’Bring your own’ [or] ‘BYO’ is the motto more than anything,” Habits of Waste Founder Sheila Morovati said. “It’s important to think ahead. If you need to pick up some food, bringing your own to-go containers will make a huge difference.”

There is a global effort to reduce the use of plastic, which experts say makes up as much as 80 percent of all marine debris. The California Coastal Commission recorded roughly 835,425 plastic straws and stirrers picked up during organized beach cleanups.

The CSUN campus has been honored for its sustainability efforts. “The Sustainability Plan on campus has really expanded CSUN’s efforts for sustainability,” CSUN Energy & Sustainability Coordinator Nikhil Schneider said. “It has been instrumental in driving sustainability research, and student educational and service learning opportunities.”

“We still sell bottled water on campus, but it has been a culture shift,” Johnson said. “It is very common now to see students carrying reusable water bottles. Every year we have a new audience of 6,000 to 10,000 students to educate and inspire.”

Moderator: Claudia Flores

Producer: Alexis Carfagno

Anchor: Sofia Gutierrez

Social Media Editor: Scott Geirman

Reporters: Alexis Carfagno, Joy Edomwonji, Claudia Flores, Scott Geirman, Sofia Gutierrez, Melissa Rodriguez and Melina Rudigkeit

Starting a business has never been an easy task. In this day and age, it can be argued that it is becoming increasingly difficult. However, this new generation of business owners has found a way to benefit from social media, by using it to build brand awareness much more easily. Regardless, succeeding with a small business is still a tall task, requiring more than just brand awareness in this new age of entrepreneurship.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says about 20 percent of small businesses fail within their first year. By the end of the fifth year, roughly 50 percent of small businesses have failed. After 10 years, only about one in three is still around.

For those who are able to make it past the first year, it’s not the easiest thing to get off to a running start.

“It’s not like Field of Dreams, [where] if you build it, they’re just gonna show up,” Opulen Studios owner Christiana Lucratif said. “It’s marketing, and trying to get everybody to spread the word. One of the biggest things was just being willing to take the risk, and just dive in.”

In this new era, the use of social media has become one of the biggest tools for entrepreneurs as they try to find new customers and partners, and then keep them. A 2017 survey of marketers showed that 66 percent of internet users between the ages of 18 and 24 are more loyal to the brands they follow on social media.

“We’re scrolling on Instagram, or whatever it may be,” Scarlet’s Addiction founder Sadee Mondino said.  “I know I have to use it all day because of what I do for a living. That’s how I find most of the brands I want to work with. That’s how I find people I want to work with.”

However, an online presence can’t be the end all be for these aspiring entrepreneurs.

“If Instagram were to shut down, [you’d have to ask], ‘can you still stay in business and how are you exporting those followers and those customers to your actual CRM (Customer Relationship Management)’,” said Lucratif. “That’s why I do a lot of the marketing directly through my own text messages and emails, versus just social media. And then people that I do find on social media, [I work on]  gathering their contact information, and putting them into my database.”

Moderator: Monica Campos

Producer: Lauren Cienfuegos

Anchor: Kenia Arevalo

Social Media Editor: Zaira Garcia

Reporters: Kenia Arevalo, Monica Campos, Alan Cardoza,  Lauren Cienfuegos, Zaira Garcia, Kimberly Lopez Chavez and Demothy Tien

Thousands of Central American migrants are traveling more than 2,500 miles to get to the United States, because for many, running away from their country is their only chance at survival. More than 7,000 Central American migrants stay in temporary shelters in border cities like Tijuana and Mexicali, where the shelters are overflowing. Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorians are continuing to flee persecution, violence and poverty, even though they know arrival at the border doesn’t guarantee safety or freedom.

“There’re so many different factors going on [in Central America],” journalist Todd Miller said. “There’re so many people talking about not being able to make ends meet, and economic deprivation.”

But Central American migration to the north has always existed.

“This is not something new,” immigration attorney Raul Godinez said. “I think, with this administration’s focus on border control, there is more attention and publicity to the issue.”

In the past year, the so-called migrant caravan has made national news, and President Trump has been very vocal, in speeches and on social media, about the situation. Before the midterm elections, Trump ordered troops to Texas to stop what he called “an assault” by a caravan from Central America. In June 2018, Trump ordered border authorities to separate children from their parents at the border, a policy he eventually was forced to withdraw. Still, the family separations reportedly continue.

The White House says more than 2,600 children were detained, but reports from various agencies say more than 5,000 children were separated from their families, and some remain in government custody.

Corruption is one of the many reasons why the migrants say they feel unsafe in their home countries. Mexican Interior Minister Olga Sanchez said she understands, and wants to bring order to the borders, and provide the migrants with humanitarian aid, and the respect and dignity they deserve.

Immigration activists said they hear stories about the dangers of migrating to the U.S. all the time. “And what makes it worse, is the stories you don’t hear, because the person is too overwhelmed to tell you,” Godinez said.

“It can weeks or months of pushing to get the full details of it,” attorney Nathan Osorio said. “A lot of times they are going to give you a little bit [of their stories], and once they feel a little comfortable, they can process it more.”

But for many migrants, their hopes for life in the U.S. will not be met.

“We say that they encountered a narrative of hate, of racism, and discrimination,” CSUN Central American Studies Department Chair Professor Douglas Carranza said. “[This is] a narrative that must be changed… this country here was founded on a different principal: a list, that is evolving towards a more just society that would include everyone. But now we have a narrative of hate that has been elevated… and that [narrative] has ramifications in every aspect of our society.”

Moderator: Karissa Preciado

Producer: Coraima Hurtado

Anchor: Enrie Amezcua

Social Media Editor: Darya Hariri

Reporters: Gloria Alas, Enrie Amezcua, Chris Farias, Jamontae Hickman, Coraima Hurtado, Karissa Preciado

Video: Abril Preciado and Jose Duran