Dark history
Overview
Kurorekishi, or dark history, is slang for the things you said, did, or made in the past that now feel so embarrassing you'd like to erase them. It started as a term in the anime "Turn A Gundam," spread online, and has settled into everyday Japanese.
The poem you wrote in middle school, a cringey self-introduction, a social media post you made in a giddy late-night mood (shinya tension). Anyone can have a dark history or two. Dark history is embarrassing because there's a gap between your past self and your present self. You could also call it proof that you've grown.
A question box is a dark history factory
Answers in a question box easily become dark history. There are three reasons. First, they are public. Unlike a diary in a notebook, your question box answers are visible to all your followers. Second, they last. Answers shared on social media get saved as screenshots, and they don't disappear even if you delete them. Third, you tend to write on impulse. Answers written in a late-night mood in particular make you want to crawl into a hole when you reread them the next morning.
"Would I be embarrassed reading this three years from now?" Pausing to ask yourself this for a moment before posting an answer can cut down your output of dark history.
Living with your dark history
You can't fully prevent dark history, because people grow. An answer you think is great today may become dark history five years from now. That is proof you've grown for five years, and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
When someone digs up your old dark history, the basic response is to "laugh it off." Admit it honestly: "I was young back then" or "It's embarrassing to look at now." Desperately denying it or trying to pretend it never happened tends to draw even more attention. Dark history loses its sting the moment you own it.