What's the deal with all of the fake reports we see now?

Maybe this has been happening for a long time, but is more wide spread now due to social media. I see a fake article being spread around facebook almost daily.
Do we really live in times where people have nothing better to do than make up fake news and try to spread it as being real? I recall seeing an article last year going around about Romo breaking his leg that was fake, just saw the Manziel scouting report that was proven to be fake.
It's always something. It's at the point where I now have to research the validity of any report I read and it's beyond annoying.