It's early afternoon and Kathy Casper of Sarasota, Fla., has been on the Internet since 8 a.m. perusing job listings, online job fairs, career centers and related sites. In the past six hours, she's submitted more than a dozen resumes and cover letters.

It's nearly a daily routine for Ms. Casper, who's looking to wind down her web design business and find a job as an online editor. Internet job hunting has become, in effect, her full-time job. Six hours, she admits, is a bit much, even for her. Typically, she'll spend two to three hours a day job hunting on line.

Job seekers have been flocking to the Internet, drawn by its ability to bridge geographic, financial, information and time limitations. More than half (57%) of U.S. adults say they'll use the Internet in their next job search, according to a survey of 2,008 adults by JWT Specialized Communications, a human-resources communications consulting firm in Los Angles. Moreover, 75% of active online job seekers are more likely to use the Internet than traditional methods of job hunting, including job fairs, professional recruiters, temporary agencies and word-of-mouth, according to another JWT survey.

Career counselors -- even Internet experts -- see this as a negative trend because it inhibits personal contact so necessary to job hunting. In some cases, the Internet can develop into a electronic crutch of sorts, says Margaret Riley Dikel, an Internet job-search and recruiting consultant in Rockville, Md.

"They rely very heavily on the Internet because they're afraid of the personal contact they need to be making," she says. "Even getting on the phone with an employer may be intimidating." Many job hunters even believe the Internet will help them bypass the interview, adds Ms. Riley.

Career experts say the Internet, a boon for most job hunters, can hinder some candidates. That's why a study on Internet use and depression that made headlines in August touched a nerve in the career counseling community. The study, by Carnegie Mellon University's Human Computer Interaction Institute, found people who use the Internet even for a few hours a week experience greater levels of depression and loneliness than those who use it less frequently.

It's hard to know what the study's implications are for job hunters. Robert Kraut, the study's co-author, says the respondents used the computer at home for non-business purposes, and the findings shouldn't be generalized beyond this context.

Still, the results seem to confirm what counselors sometimes observe in unemployed clients. Katie Cooney, a vice president at LeaderSource, a Minneapolis-based executive coaching firm, says some executives who receive outplacement counseling want to sit at the computer for hours on end, a trend that started about two years ago. These executives, who tend to be more reserved and upset about losing their jobs than others, need to be gently urged to get out and network, she says. If they don't, their searches can take longer and be more frustrating than necessary. This cycle leads to discouragement and dejection, factors that can contribute to depression.

"There's a link," says Ms. Cooney. "If someone is avoiding human contact, it causes more isolation and there's less success, less human feedback and less response."

Most job hunters are already "in a state of discomfiture," whether they're unemployed or just unhappy in their current positions, says Ms. Dikel.

Job hunting, by its nature, can be frustrating and depressing. "You start to question your masculinity, your college degree, your parents' upbringing, the whole shebang," says Marc Le Vine, a recruiter for Infopro, a software company in Woodbridge, N.J.

Shy people, who often find it easier to work with machines than with people, are especially vulnerable, says Susan Guarneri, a career counselor in Lawrenceville, N.J. "Introverts tend to take [a job loss] a little harder," she says. They're also likely to lack the support systems needed to network successfully to find new positions.

Job hunting online can be depressing, concedes Ms. Casper. Because "you see so many, many openings -- which makes the lack of response all the more glaring." Web-based job-search mechanics also are discouraging, she says. "You find the perfect position, then you notice it was posted [months earlier]," she says. "Most of the career sites have search engines, but nine times out of 10, when you enter a keyword or phrase, the search turns up no matches. You've either been too broad or too specific."

Adding to the frustration are the unintelligible job descriptions. "Who writes this nonsense?" she gripes. Consider this recent posting for a job as a technical architect:

Must have been an architect before. If that is not possible, must be a very experienced TTL. Must have multi-lingual, multi-currency application experience, or at least some experience on large, complex projects... Must be able to mentor TTLs. Must be able to manage a technical project plan...

"Job Duties: leading and coordinating the infrastructure development schedule and effort; coordinating and resolving technical issues in a timely manner; facilitating technical integration across the entire application. mentoring four TTLs; managing/mentoring 2 DBAs, and 2 QA personnel; communicating status to the client and to CTP management.

Online job hunting can be lonely, but so can job-hunting using traditional methods, she says. Most of her complaints, she adds, have counterparts in the "off-line" world.

Maybe so, but career advisers say job hunters who overly rely on the Internet at the expense of networking are likely to prolong their job search. "The key to getting a job remains networking and getting out and talking to people," says Ms. Cooney.

As job-hunt guru Richard Nelson Bolles says in "The 1999 What Color Is Your Parachute?" (1999, Ten Speed Press), "if you want to find out if this new career or job fits you, you must go talk to people actually doing the work that interests you."

In fact, after more than a year of dabbling and four to six months of intensively searching, Ms. Casper's job hunt took a positive turn when she spoke with an executive at Comcast Corp. and learned she'd been using inaccurate terms to describe the job she wanted. Billing herself as a web designer and responding to online listings for these roles, Ms. Casper found she lacked sufficient programming skills to qualify for these positions. She's now answering postings for online editor positions and believes she'll have greater success.

She adds that her time wouldn't be better spent networking because she's looking for a position outside her region.

But no one's about to tell job hunters to avoid the Internet. Rather, most career guidance experts say using the Internet is empowering for most job seekers. Linda Natansohn, vice president of business and product development for the Monster Board, a Maynard, Mass.-based Internet job site, says her site provides an ego boost to professionals whose self-esteem is tied to their careers.

Many Monster Board users are passive job seekers who want to make sure they're paid well in their current positions, says Ms. Natansohn. Their online job searches typically consist of receiving an e-mail when a posting matches their resume. "It's something that makes people feel good about themselves," says Ms. Natansohn.

Some career guidance experts also maintain the Internet makes networking easier for professionals who have difficulty meeting people face to face. Rejection may be a lot easier to take online, says Mr. Le Vine. "If you're sending your resume on e-mail, it's faceless. It's OK" to be rejected, he says.

But such electronic networking shouldn't be a substitute for human contact, career counselors say. "It'll never replace face-to-face meetings for job hunters," says Marilyn Moats Kennedy, publisher of Kennedy's Career Strategist, a newsletter on career planning based in Wilmette, Ill. "You don't know who these people are or where they are. It's a group grope."

How do you know when you're spending too much time job hunting on the Internet? If your search is going nowhere and you're not getting offers, it's a signal that you need to rethink your strategy, says Ms. Cooney.

"I always tell people looking for work [that] generally you should spend only 25% of your time on the Internet," Ms. Riley says. "You've got to get off the Internet and make phone calls."

Job hunters have to ward against "relying on it too heavily and making it your entire day," says Mr. Le Vine. Exercise discipline when surfing the Web by setting time limits and sticking to them, he advises. "It's easy to get caught up in it very quickly and get sidetracked. Before you know it, you've shot the whole day."

-- Ms. Lorber is senior editor of the National Business Employment Weekly.