The Hangover of Abstraction and the look for Purity

The early 2010s to mid-2020s in JavaScript felt like an all-you-can-eat buffet of abstraction. Every problem, big or small, seemed to warrant a new library or plan. Our node_modules folders swelled to gargantuan proportions, mirroring a collective anxiety that perhaps we couldn't trust the browser, or ourselves, to handle common tasks. We became experts in "glue code," spending more time integrating and debugging third-party packages than building core features.

But as we hurtle through 2026, a base shift is occurring. The JavaScript community is collectively inhaling, then exhaling, a massive sigh of relief as it purges the unnecessary. This isn't just about deleting old code; it's a philosophical re-evaluation, a money to the foundational principles of web growth where the browser is the main operating system, and JavaScript is its nearby tongue.

The Renaissance of "Vanilla"

The main driver of this shift is the incredible maturation of the Web tool itself. new browsers Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge have reached a rank of parity and power that makes many old libraries redundant.

●The Death of Utility Libraries: Features like Object.groupBy(), Array.prototype.at(), and the Temporal API for dates are replacing the need for Lodash and Moment.
●The CSS change: We no longer need JavaScript for things that CSS now handles natively, such as :has() selectors for parent targeting or container queries for responsive design.

1. The Renaissance of "Vanilla": Browser APIs Strike Back

The main catalyst for this "great deletion" is the sheer power and steady of new browser APIs. Developers are rediscovering the joy and speed of working directly with the DOM, nearby data structures, and the network layer without layers of abstraction.

1.1. Date and Time bosses: The Temporal API's win

For years, Moment.js and later date-fns were key. Date manipulation in JavaScript was notoriously tricky due to mutable Date objects and timezone complexities. Enter the Temporal API, a new, immutable, and full fix for dates and times, now widely supported across major browsers.

Before (Moment.js):

effect: Eliminates a ~70KB (minified) library, improves date handling safety with immutability, and leverages a nearby, long standard.

1.2. DOM Manipulation: The End of jQuery's Reign

jQuery was a revelation in its time, abstracting away cross-browser inconsistencies in DOM manipulation. Today, these inconsistencies are largely a relic of the past, and nearby APIs offer better results and ergonomics.

effect: A big reduction in bundle size (~30KB minified for slim jQuery), improved results by avoiding jQuery's selector engine overhead, and a deeper understanding of nearby DOM events.

The Rise of Libraries: Convenience at a Cost
1. The "Golden Age" of jQuery: A needed Evil
In the early days, we weren't just using libraries; we were surviving. The web was a fragmented mess where writing code for Internet Explorer and Firefox felt like speaking two new languages. jQuery was the all translator. It wasn't a luxury; it was a bridge. It solved the "Cross-Browser Nightmare" by giving us a one syntax for DOM manipulation and AJAX.

However, looking back, this was our first step toward dependency. We traded a deep understanding of browser engines for a $ sign. We became fast, but we became abstracted away from the engine.

2. The Explosion of Frameworks: Building on Shifting Sand
Then came the era of React, Angular, and Vue. These weren't just tools; they were religions. They promised us "Scalability" and "Structure," turning web growth into a smart assembly line. We stopped thinking about "Pages" and started thinking about "Components."

The trap here was seductive. These frameworks allowed us to build complex interfaces in hours, but they needed us to learn a exact system’s "dialect." Suddenly, you weren't a JavaScript developer; you were a "React Developer." We began to rank the plan’s lifecycle over the browser’s lifecycle.

3. The Hidden Costs: The "Weight" of Invisible Chains
The cost of this convenience was never billed upfront. It was hidden in the node_modules folder a black hole of nested dependencies.

●The Runtime Tax: We started shipping entire libraries just to toggle a menu or style a string.

●The mind Load: To fix a bug, you now had to understand the plan, the state bosses library, and the build tool (Webpack/Vite) before you even touched a line of actual logic.

●The Decay: outside code is a liability. Every time a library maintainer changes an API, your plan risks breaking. We traded the forever steady of the Web tool for the volatility of GitHub repositories.

Why We're deleting libraries: Reclaiming the make
1. results: The Silent Killer of Conversion
We’ve spent years treating results as an afterthought, hiding behind fast office Wi-Fi while our users struggle on 3G networks. When we "npm install" a 50KB library just to use two of its functions, we are taxing our users' hardware. Every script we delete is a win for the CPU. By stripping back to the nearby metal, we aren't just making things "faster" we are making them open to the next billion users who don't have the latest flagship phone.

2. Security: Closing the "Backdoor" of Convenience
Every dependency is a stranger you’ve invited into your codebase with full administrative privileges. The "left-pad" incident and many supply-chain attacks proved that the more libraries we use, the more we gamble with our users' data. Deleting a library isn't just about cleaning code; it’s a security check. By writing our own logic, we ensure that every line of execution is vetted, understood, and needed.

3. Growth: Escaping the "plan Trap"
There is a massive difference between a "React Developer" and a "program build." Relying on abstractions stunts our professional growth; it makes us specialists in a tool that might be obsolete in three years. When we delete the library and solve the problem using Standard Web APIs, we are investing in knowledge that has a 20-year shelf life. We stop being "plugin installers" and start being "architects."

4. Maintainability: Winning the War Against Version leave

This is the most personal point for any developer who has had to fix a "broken build" on a Monday morning. Libraries are living organisms they evolve, they introduce breaking changes, and eventually, they are abandoned. By sticking to Vanilla JavaScript, we are choosing a language that is governed by world standards, not the whims of a single tech company or a burnt-out maintainer. Basics don't have "breaking changes." nearby code written ten years ago still runs today; can you say the same for your favorite 2015 plan?

The results order
In 2026, results is no longer a luxury; it’s the main currency of SEO and user retention. Every kilobyte of JavaScript we don't ship is a kilobyte that doesn't need to be downloaded, parsed, or executed. By deleting libraries, we aren't just cleaning up our package.json; we are physically speeding up the internet.
The "plan Tax" the overhead of a library's runtime is being questioned. Developers are moving toward "No-Build" architectures, where code is written in standard ES Modules and run directly in the browser without complex transpilation or bundling.

The AI sway
Surprisingly, the rise of AI coding assistants has accelerated the "Back to Basics" shift. AI models are trained on the base rules of JavaScript. When you use a area library, the AI might hallucinate or struggle with version-exact syntax. When you use Standard Vanilla JavaScript, the AI provides cleaner, more accurate, and highly bug-resistant code. Simplicity makes our human-AI collaboration more fast.

The Psychological Shift: From buyer to Creator
This shift represents a shift in developer identity. We are moving away from being "Library Integrators" back to being "Engineers." By understanding the underlying browser APIs, we gain more control and reduce "Vendor Lock-in."

The Future is Lean

The mid-life crisis of JavaScript isn't a sign of decline; it's a sign of maturity. We are deleting the training wheels because we’ve learned how to ride. The future of the web isn't found in the next big plan, but in the power of the tool we already have.

Personal view: My process
I once relied heavily on libraries. jQuery was my crutch, React my obsession, and npm my toolbox. But over time, I realized my applications were slower, harder to keep, and dependent on outside updates.

When I started deleting libraries, I felt liberated. Writing pure JavaScript was challenging at first, but soon I rediscovered its elegance. I learned to trust the language, not outside packages. My code became lighter, faster, and more secure.

This process taught me that simplicity is not regression it is growth.