You should change your needle reasonably often. Perhaps it broke because it was too dull to go through the material. The more sewing you do, the easier it is to know when to change the needle. Certainly if you hear a sort of popping sound when the needle goes in it means you have left it a bit long to change the needle. After every project(and sometimes during) you should get rid of fluff in the bobbin race and feed dogs. I use a big paint brush or make up brush for this as the ones they supply you with are inadequate.
Never pull the thread backward through the tension disc when you are changing the thread as you can drag lint into the disc. Cut it off at the top and drag the tail out through the needle direction. The little bit of thread waste is worth not having to get your machine serviced too often.