Do you mean why do I call them ghosts? Because that's what others call them. This thread (like the general population) has been using the word "ghosts" for several things - the first post asked if we had any idea what they might be. Personally I'd probably reserve the term "ghost" for a soul of someone no longer alive who is detectable enough in this reality (or 'on this plane', or whatever) for some people to be aware of him/her/it.. But I know that others use the term much more widely.
You say that others call them 'ghosts' so you use the word too. I asked if you consider the discarnate entities - the ones you've told us that you've spoken to - to be ghosts, particularly as I'd referred to the aspect that folk can't interact with 'ghosts'.
The corollary to that reference is what folk do interact with is something other than ghosts. It's the interaction or communication with the entity that is a key factor I suggest. It's my experience that words and terms are often imprecisely used and that leads to misunderstanding.
Maybe you'd better tell me what you consider a "ghost" to be. Otherwise, we are simply playing around with words. You seem to be defining a ghost as "something that can't be talked to."
Oh I wasn't playing with words but rather the reverse as I'd already suggested in posting #17 "It's easier to say what ghosts aren't rather than what they are." And in posting #21 "What does seem to be a reported feature of ghosts is that they're unable to be interacted with." I wasn't defining a 'ghost' at all but suggesting that it's hard even to say what they are let alone try to produce a definition.
The point I had intended to progress to is that a ghost does not appear to be a living entity in the way that our fundamental animating spirit forms are living and can communicate and may interact with those who are sensitive to their presence.
You said,
"What does seem to be a reported feature of ghosts is that they're unable to be interacted with."
Reported by whom? And where?
When Mrs.S. asked,
I think this has been touched on before, but since ghosts seems to be part of the human experience, does anyone have any ideas about what they might be?
it seemed reasonable (particularly after I’d asked) to assume that she meant, “What are these things that people call ‘ghosts’?” So I replied to that.
I use the term “ghosts” to mean souls of dead people who are close enough to here to be detected by those sensitive enough to do so. But I also allowed that other things might be mistaken for ghosts.
Some are "free souls" (the part of us that carries our awareness into death - the bit most people mean when they say "soul") who are stuck here. (Most stuck souls are not here and therefore aren't perceived as ghosts.) They need help.
Some are what you refer to as a 'recording' - I understand these to be the memories of spirits of buildings or land. Sometimes these spirits are traumatised by what they have seen or experienced and keep replaying it over in their memories. The house or land may then need help.
Some are land spirits and house spirits who belong where they are and who don't need any help.
Some (particularly those who 'haunt' graveyards and cemeteries) are the "body soul". They occasionally need help but usually not.
Three of these can be communicated with. The other, the ‘recording’, is a memory. The spirit who has the memory can be communicated with.
It seems that you are considering “ghost” to be something else, but – so far, at least – I am not understanding what that is.