Autonomy

Strive towards autonomy when it comes to technology. Don’t make yourself dependent on service providers. Prefer open solutions and common / shared standards. Beware of enshittification, planned obsolescence and privacy issues.

Escape hatches

For the technology you chose to use and put your trust in but can’t control, make sure you have escape hatches. If you store your photos in the cloud, make sure you have a local backup that you can easily migrate to another cloud service.

E-mail can be really hard to self host, but you can buy your own domain name which can be pointed to any trusted e-mail provider. That way you’re never locked in and can always move on. Same thing with websites, blogs, etc.

Offline enabled

Make sure the tech you rely on, especially in your home, works offline and without a service provider. You don’t want your door locks to stop working if the company producing them goes out of business. If your internet goes down, you still want your lights to work. Self-hosting should always be an option available, even if you choose not to right now.