When you share an article or a post on social media, do you take the time to check it out? Do you read the whole thing? Do you check the source? Do you open the hyperlinks? Do you check the date?

What I'm really trying to get at here is are you being responsible with what you share?

We all fully understand the effects and consequences invalid information can have. Some false stories are really well done and a little bit of research has to be done to find out the truth — but isn't that small amount of effort worth it?

I have some Facebook friends that share some pretty out-there articles and posts, and let me tell you, the headlines on those articles are always click-bait. Usually they don't bother me, and I scroll right past. Today, however, I saw one that read "Feminist Mother Rejects Infant Son Because of His Gender." Of course, me being a feminist, I just had to read it. Any articles that try to diminish feminists or cast us in some crazy man-hater light are my favorite to read. Sometimes you just need a good laugh.

This article was just like the others except it was in response to another article. The author was criticizing this mom for claiming to be a feminist but not actually living by her own words. After she said she would "accept" her son and raise him as a feminist, he claimed she would ruin her son by raising him to believe all men are the downfall of the human race — because feminists are man-haters and "third-wave feminism is just sexism by another name."

Now I will admit that there are definitely some people out there who ruin it for all other feminists and give us a bad name — they are the real man-haters and hypocrites. But after reading this article, I scrolled back to the top and clicked the hyperlink that would bring me to the original article. It was titled "Having a son went from a dilemma to being the most valuable lesson of my life."

Want to know what her point was?

She was raised and surrounded by feminists all her life. She didn't have much of a male presence in her life in terms of brothers and cousins, and she always expected she would only raise girls. When she discovered she was having a boy, she was caught off guard and mentally unprepared. She never considered what it would be like to raise a boy or how she would do it. In the end she unveils her evil plan of — gasp — raising her son to have feminist values and treat women as equals. Sure, maybe she's a little overzealous in her concern, but that was something outside her comfort zone in her eyes. In the end, it became her greatest lesson. At no point did she reject her son. She learned from him.

My point is it only took me one click to figure out what the true story was. That's it.

Maybe this is a useless rant and a waste of an article. Nothing is stopping people from publishing ridiculous, sensational articles that perpetuate stereotypes and false information. And nothing is stopping people from sharing them. But I think it's important to bring awareness to it.

Fully understand what you are reading before you accept it as truth and share it. 2017 can be the year we nip these sensational, yellow journalism-like articles in the bud.