The graph above shows the quantity of data downloaded (in blue) and uploaded (red) on my home internet connection since 2006 (click graph to enlarge). You’ll notice a fairly gradual climb in data downloads until August 2011, when I treated myself to an iPad 2 for my birthday. Suddenly that blue line jolts like a patient coming out of cardiac arrest in a TV drama.

Why has the iPad resulted in such a dramatic leap in data downloads? Because it’s a weapon of mass consumption. I estimate half of the television I watch these days is watched on the iPad. Whether it’s catching up with Have I Got News For You on the iPlayer app or watching the Monday Night Football on Sky Go while my girlfriend takes the main television set hostage for the Coronation Street, EastEnders, Coronation Street marathon, I’m regularly guzzling video on the tablet, chomping through hundreds of megabytes for every hour’s viewing.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, I stay in bed and download The Times on my tablet, rather than trudge over to Tesco for the newspapers.  An entire edition of The Sunday Times is a portly 650MB by itself, although more often than not I only download the sections I’m interested in, because on my long-line ADSL connection, it would be Wednesday before I got to read AA Gill’s column.

Then there’s the magazines I download via Newsstand, which add another few hundred megabytes each to the data tab. Not to mention games such as FIFA 12, Pirates and Madden 2012, which can take up 1GB all by themselves.

Not all of my data spike can be attributed to the iPad. A good chunk of that spike you see in December 2011 is down to us trying to avoid the dismal Christmas television by watching an entire series of Misfits on 4oD on the Xbox.

Yet, the impact of the iPad is highlighted by the sharp dip in data downloads in January 2012, when I spent more than 10 days out of the country – and the iPad came with me.

If my behaviour is even remotely typical of iPad owners, ISPs must have been slumped over their servers when Apple announced the new iPad and its new Retina screen, which will inevitably increase demand for higher resolution video, newspapers and magazines. Or rubbing their hands in glee at the chance to upgrade customers to a more expensive tariff, if they don’t offer unlimited downloads…